Back to the beginning
by shadow12
Summary: Naruto defeated Madara but he still lost it all in the end. With the Kyuubi's help Naruto will turn back time to correct the mistakes. In doing so he will face enemies old and new, and maybe find just what he's missed out on. Harem of 7.
1. prologue

**Back to the beginning **

**Hello everyone this is my first story I hope that it is to your liking and I apologize beforehand for any spelling/grammar mistakes that I make.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any character in this story**

**Now on with the story**

* * *

He had failed.

Failed to protect his loved ones. Failed to beat the one who had caused so much pain and destruction.

Failed to beat Madara.

The final battle had gone well at first; Naruto had killed Sasuke in the beginning; Sakura as well since she had betrayed everyone. It seemed that her fan girl side and apparent 'love' for Sasuke had clouded her mind. Naruto had held his own against Madara without using the Kyuubi's chakra.

Their attacks had been so powerful they leveled mountains, shattered trees and created huge craters. But when Naruto's friends appeared to help was when it had gone downhill. Madara had used Naruto's moment of distraction to his advantage; he had gotten behind everyone and silently killed them all. By the time a warning had left Naruto's mouth they were gone. When he saw that every one of his friends, loved ones, and surrogate family were gone he snapped. After all the years of abuse, neglect, and loneliness Naruto had finally snapped; unleashing every ounce of the fox's chakra he had.

And with one massive Rasenshuriken he had destroyed every inch of Madara and the result was one huge crater out classing any he had seen (an: imagine the crater that was Konoha after pain's invasion times three).

And now, standing in the shattered remains of Konoha was Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze; the bodies of his friends laying at his feet. Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Kakashi, Kurenai, Guy, Shizune, Tsunade, even little Tonton, all of them, gone.

The young man stared at them with tear filled eyes before all the fatigue and mental exhaustion took their toll on him and he passed out.

_**'Naruto's Mindscape'**_

Now standing in front of the cage the housed the Kyuubi, Naruto just stared blankly ahead. The giant fox just stared at her (yes the Kyuubi is a girl in this) jailer sadly, before softly speaking, **"Hey kit how you holding up?"**

Naruto just stared at the fox blankly before falling to his knees and bursting in to tears. "T-They're all g-gone. Every one of them." He sobbed.

The fox just sighed sadly and said, **"yeah I saw and…for what its worth...I know how you feel."** She said in an equally sad voice.

Naruto's head snapped up and his eyes quickly from teary and sad to angry while a crease appeared on his brow. "How do you know what it feels like to lose those precious to you!? All you are is a being made of chakra! So tell me how is it you know how I'm feeling as you've never cared before!" he shouted.

Kyuubi just kept staring at him the same sad look on her face before replying,** "yes I do know how it feels, I lost my best friend on the night of my attack. And before you ask who, it was your mother." **

If Naruto's jaw could have reached the ground it would be 10 feet under as he just stared at Kyuubi in disbelieving shock. "Huh?" was all that he could say. Kyuubi let out a snort of amusement at that. **"Don't be so surprised kit your mother and I were good friends though I'll admit that we were at odds at times but good friends none the less." **

Naruto just kept staring at Kyuubi. He couldn't believe it. First he loses all his friends, and now here the great Kyuubi no Yoko told him that it (he doesn't know Kyuubi is a girl yet) knew his mother. He thought the fox had called him here to boast that he couldn't kill Madara without its help and that he was powerless since he couldn't save his friends in the end. The make him feel down by rubbing his failures in his face shtick. But the fox had instead, asked how he was feeling and told him that it knew his mother. Yeah who wouldn't be shocked after that?

Pulling himself together he asked, "why are you telling me this now? And why aren't you acting like you usually do? Usually you'd be rubbing my failures in my face by now."

"**The reason I'm telling you this now and why I'm not acting as I usually am is because… well I was in a Genjutsu. It only wore off when you killed that bastard Uchiha." **She said with a bit of anger at the end.

"Okay," Naruto blinked. "You got any more secrets I should probably know?"

Kyuubi smiled a bit at this if it was possible, **"well, for one, I was sealed in your mother before you, I'm part of another being called the Jubi **(ten tails)**, I love pranks, my name is Akane, I have a human form, oh and while we're on that topic I'm female." **she finished with a smirk at seeing Naruto's face at the end.

Naruto who had become more and more shock with each revelation jaw dropped to the floor at the last comment.

"**But we're off of the reason why I called you here." **Akane said getting to business. **"I can help you save your friends from this fate."** Naruto's eyes narrowed at the vixen when he heard this, "Oh? And how exactly can you do that?"

"**I can send you back; to correct the timeline." **She explained,

"I'm sensing that there's a catch somewhere."

The fox nodded, "**The catch is that you would have to remove a quarter of the seal to let enough of my chakra out so I can work this jutsu and that you could possibly develop more fox-like traits ." **she explained.

Meanwhile Naruto was thinking it all over he could save his friends and correct the mistakes he made in the past, but he would have to remove part of the seal that held the Kyuubi in place. He had to ask about the fox traits though. "Could you explain what you mean by fox-like traits?"

**"Well**** your senses of smell, hearing, and sight could be enhanced." **Akane explained. Naruto added those into his thoughts and found that the pros far outweighed the cons and responded with his decision. "Alright let's do this." He said approaching the cage.

**"Alright, but this will hurt...a lot." **

"I don't care if I can save my friends then it's worth it." He said tearing off a corner of the seal. The next thing he knew was that he was in unbearable pain, Kyuubi's chakra had began to surround him the instant he had torn the seal. Barley a minute after he had done so the pain became too much and his world went black.

* * *

**Hope you all liked the first chap. I'll get the next out as soon as I can. So please review and point out where I need to improve.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey there everyone the new chapter is here and thanks to those of you who reviewed. Hopefully this one will be longer than the last. And again I apologize for spelling and grammar mistakes. **

**To ****SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan: don't worry there will be a pairing it'll be a small harem of like 2 maybe 3 girls and no sakura or Hinata won't be in it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in this story. **

**Now on to the story**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Naruto groggily opened his eyes and immediately shut them again due to the sun light streaming through the window wait, '_window?'_ He thought. Slowly reopening his eyes he turned and saw that it was indeed a window that was letting the sunlight though. Looking past it he saw the Hokage Monument in the distance that made his eyes widen. The last time he saw that was before Madara and his army had destroyed it in the war.

'_That was one hell of a dream,'_ he thought, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes

"**That wasn't a dream kit," **he heard. Naruto's head snapped up and he quickly did a quick scan of the room and saw that no one was there.

'_K-Kyuubi?' _he shakily thought back. **"Oh come on Naruto you know my name, Kyuubi is just a title."** She said with mirth in her voice.

'_That wasn't a dream? You really sent use back in time?' _he asked.

**"Yep and if I remember right we're back to the day off that you had before team assignments."** Akane said happily, while Naruto tried to get up but found that he couldn't move properly and fell flat on the floor. _'Um Akane, why can't I move right?' _he asked getting up only to fall again.

Akane took a look through Naruto's eyes and almost burst out laughing at what she saw. It looked like every movement he made it looked like it was the movements of a bigger and older person.

"**I'd say that your muscles are trying to move like they did when you were older, instead of being the way they were when you were 13."** She said trying to keep her laughter under control and utterly failing when Naruto fell face first and hit his head against the wall of his room.

'_Ha-ha. Laugh it up if you don't want me to change the Mindscape from a sewer to something nicer.' _He thought with a small smirk when Akane abruptly stopped and a surprised silence was in the link they shared when they communicated.

**"Y-You'd**** do that for me? After all that I put you through? Even if I was in a Genjutsu?" **Akane asked in a surprised voice. _'Yeah I would, and it is because you were in a Genjutsu that I'm doing this…okay this is starting to get annoying pull me into the Mindscape.' _Naruto said in a slightly annoyed voice at the end. He found that trying to walk around and talk to Akane to be too difficult.

**"Alright," **was the response he got before he felt a tugging sensation in the back of his mind and he went with it.

_**'Naruto's Mindscape'**_

Next thing he knew was that he was standing in front of Akane's cage. The only difference was the one standing there. Gone was the giant fox with nine tails, now standing in front of him just behind the bars was what he would describe as an angel do to her beauty. She had lush red hair with two fox ears pointing out, a slightly round face with pale unblemished skin, a small button nose, and blood-red eyes with slits for pupils, thin lips that were curled into a small smile. Looking down past her face he blushed at what he saw, she had B borderline C cup breasts, a flat toned stomach, with nice curvy hips and long almost endless legs and there were 9 red fox tails attached to her tail bone. Oh and did I mention that she was as naked as the day she was born?

Naruto stood there frozen to the bone just staring at the beauty standing before him with a blush that would make tomatoes green with envy. Seeing his stunned and red face she giggled and asked, **"like what you see Naruto-kun?" **That did it and he flew back with a geyser of blood coming out of his nose. Giggling quietly to herself she waited for him to get back up.

When he finally come to again he found Akane still standing in her previous state of dress before turning around with a small blush on his face and said/asked, "it's not that I don't, but could you at least put some cloths on."

Looking down at herself she let out a small gasp before exclaiming, **"oh! Sorry but it's been so long since I had to wear any close that I guess I forgot." **She said with a blush on her face while inwardly thinking, _**'I wonder if he did like what he saw though.'** _She snapped her fingers and some cloths appeared on her frame, **"there you can turn around now."**

Turning slowly, Naruto let out a sigh of relief when he saw that she was now dressed in a blue kimono with white snowflakes that accented her figure quite nicely. "Yeah now that I'm here I was going to explain why I was changing the Mindscape. The reasons why I am is for the fact that one you were in a Genjutsu, so the attack wasn't your fault. Two, I need to think you for sending us back somehow and finally three, I don't think that a beautiful lady like yourself would like being in a sewer." He finished with a blush.

Akane meanwhile had looked surprised at the last comment while thinking **'**_**Naruto-kun thinks I'm beautiful.' **_

Snapping out of her surprised state she replied, **"thank you for the compliment and your right I don't like this sewer. But someone's Mindscape represents the state that one's mind is in, so I don't think that it is possible for you to change it." **The last part was said sadly. Naruto on the other hand smirked and simply said/asked while closing his eyes, "you do know that I'm known for doing the impossible don't you?"

"**What do you…" **She trailed at the end because the area around them had suddenly started to waver. It began changing from a wet and dark sewer to a lush green forest with a beautiful lake in the center and fox pups running around a meadow that was beside it. She gasped as she could hear birds singing in the distance; see a few nesting in nearby trees, smell the sweat scent of flowers in the meadow, and feel the air moving around her. She saw that the seal that held her had moved to be a small choker around her neck.

Naruto in the meantime was concentrating hard to make the sewer that was his mindscape to what he wanted it to be like. He could tell it worked by the gasp that he heard from Akane. When he was done he opened his eyes and found that it was as he hoped it would be.

Next thing he knew was that Akane had tackled him to the ground and was hugging him as if he was her lifeline all the while muttering think you with tears in her eyes.

Naruto just chuckled softly and held her close waiting for her to finish. When she had finished and gotten off of him she blushed, **"sorry that I just tackled you. I just got so excited that I…" **she was stopped when Naruto put his finger to her lips, "its okay Akane-Chan I understand that you would be excited at being some place different from that sewer. So there is no need to apologize." He said softly.

Akane was frozen when she heard him add the -Chan suffices to her name but in her mind she was thinking, _**'he called me -Chan does this mean that he likes me? But we only just met!'** _While this was going through her mind Naruto was thinking, _'when did I start calling her –Chan? Do I like her that way already? We just met though!' _but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind when he heard Akane speaking.

"**Naruto-kun, I think that when you leave that you should get used to your younger body again, then go train to see what abilities you still have from the future and go to a ninja store to stock up on supplies and get a better outfit…because the truth is that orange jumpsuit looks terrible and is not suitable for ninjas because its to bright and lacks stealth." ** Naruto just sighed at her before replying, "yeah I guess I better get a new outfit, I never liked the thing anyway so I guess it time to change my look." He said, and it was the truth it was the only thing that the shopkeepers would sale him at a far price but he wasn't going to spoil Akane's mood with that information.

He stood up and said, "well I guess I better go and get used to my body then go and do the rest of what needs to be done." Akane sighed sadly she didn't want him to leave but she knew that he must.

**"Alright but come back soon." **She said sadly. Naruto just grinned and said, "don't worry Akane-Chan I'll visit later tonight. That's a promise." Before he disappeared from the mindscape. Akane sighed sadly and muttered, **"hurry back Naruto-kun."**

_**'Real world'**_

Naruto sighed as he came back to the world of the wake. "Well, I guess its time to start training." He tried to get up and fell flat on his face.

"But first I've got to figure out how to work this damn body right!"

* * *

**Well there's chapter two for you all. Please read and review, and to answer you all about whether or not Akane is in the harem yes she is. **


	3. training and gaining new jutsu

**Hey everyone here's another chapter hope you like it.**

**SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan: yeah I thought that it would be funny since she has been sealed in him for years. **

**And for any of you that say that they had already met what I meant by '**_**just met' **_**is that since she got out of the Genjutsu Naruto met the real kyuubi.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the associated characters or jutsu that are used/mentioned. I just own this story. **

**Now on with the story.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Training and gaining new jutsu**

Getting used to his smaller body took a couple of tries but after an hour or so he figured it out. Now he was roof jumping to the nearest training ground to check out what abilities he had kept from the future and what was lost to him.

He knew that sage mode was out of the question until his body could handle it, or at the very least until he signed the toad contract again. Rasenshuriken was also out because he didn't have the chakra supply to fuel the technique, and he doubted that even if he could pull it off he would be able to keep his arm since without Senjutsu he couldn't throw it, and if using it on Kakazu the first time broke his arm in his older body it would no doubt sever it in is younger. Some people would like to keep the limbs attached thank you very much.

He couldn't use Akane's chakra because it would alert nearby ninja and his didn't think that younger body probably couldn't handle more than one tail before he went berserk. His chakra control was probably shoot to shit because this body had next to none at this point in time, _'and all that hard work down the drain.'_ he thought inwardly crying waterfall tears. He could definitely use the rasengan since he had learned it the first time in this body though it would be with the clone's help. The wind style rasengan was a big maybe, but the bright side was that he could throw it without Senjutsu, _'I can't believe that I only used it in combat once and that was before the war…man I really need a larger arsenal for wind jutsu.'_ He thought with a sweat drop. The thought that his main techniques were the shadow clone, the rasengan, and the Rasenshuriken was ridicules. It's amazing that he even lived as long as he had on those.

Akane chose this time to speak up, **"Naruto-kun, you might have gotten another affinity when we went through time. I'm not sure but it's a good chance its fire since that's my element, and I sent a large amount of chakra through your body to do that. Oh and you're at the training ground now"** she said with a giggle at the end.

Naruto sweat dropped again at his laps, _'thanks Akane-Chan and I'll check on that after I get my hands on some chakra paper' _he thought before looking up and seeing that he had arrived at training ground 45. It had a forest of to the side a large lake in the middle and a wide open field. He figured it would be a good place to train seeing as nobody but Anko Miterashi wanted to get to close to training ground 44 otherwise known as the Forest of Death. Sighing again he made the hand sign for his most used jutsu and shouted out, "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" There were numerous poofs of smoke before it cleared to show 200 shadow clones standing around him he sweat dropped yet again, _'yep my chakra control is defiantly shot to shit I only meant to make 150.' _He thought before pulling himself together and handing out orders "alright we have one day to get up to notch. I want you to divide into groups of 50." He waited for the clones to do just that before he continued, "you all." He pointed to the group to his right, "have chakra control, divide it to 5 groups of 10 and have one group do tree walking, another water walking, the next leaf balancing, the next leaf floating, and finally, senbon balancing." He finished before pointing to the group in front of him. "This group has wind manipulation, divide into two groups and one will work on leaf cutting, the other has waterfall cutting." He pointed to the group to his left, "you all have Rasengan training. Try to make it one handed." He turned to the group behind him, "the last group has the Wind Style: Rasengan try to make it with only one clone to add the wind the other will try to handle the shape manipulation; if you can't then use the third clone to, at the very least, see if it is even possible to do the technique." He turned and addressed all the clones now, "dispel the best one from in the group every hour…now GET TO WORK!" He finished in a shout.

"YES BOSS." The clones shouted before running off to do their tasks leaving only 25 behind, "and what are you all still doing here?" he asked the group. "Well" one brave clone spoke up, "there isn't any waterfall in this training ground." The clone finished with a nervous chuckle, Naruto looked up and saw that indeed the training field didn't have a waterfall. What it did have though was a large group of boulders beside the lake. Remembering what Yamato said about boulders being an option to cut if there wasn't a waterfall nearby, he got an idea.

"Well, why not use the boulders instead of a waterfall then?" he asked.

The clones sweat dropped at they're stupidity before replying with a meager, "yes boss." Before setting off to their task of cutting boulders. Naruto sighed at them before setting off to find the nearest ninja library.

When he got there he went straight to the jutsu section and looked up wind and fire jutsu. Sitting down at a table and flipping through the tutorials to the main section of the wind jutsu of the book he scanned the page until he found some that looked interesting a jutsu called, great break through_ 'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough-__a relatively simple technique that creates a sudden gust of wind, but its scale varies greatly depending on the user. If used by a superior shinobi, it has enough destructive power to knock down a large tree. The wind from the squall can blow away all things in the user's line of sight. A variation of the technique involves a smaller blast of wind which gets ignited with flame. Hand signs are tiger, ox, dog, hare, and snake.' _

_'This looks useful.' _He thought with a raised eyebrow at the techniques destructive power and the implications of the jutsu.

Writing it down, he scanned farther down the page and found a powerful looking one _'Wind Style: Petal Dust Dance-a technique that allows the user to summon a cyclone of petals to attack their opponent. The user must remain in one spot for the use of the technique, so he or she can direct it anywhere they desire. Therefore, the user can increase the direction and power of the technique to the maximum as a last resort. Hand signs are tiger, hare, and dragon' _his eyes widened as a memory hit him.

_'This is the technique that the body switcher used on me when we were sent on that grave robber mission.' _He thought flashing back to the mission where he met Sora, before writing down the description and hand signs for the technique before finding the last jutsu in the book (an: the wind tutorials where most of it). _'Wind Style:_ V_acuum Sphere-to operate this jutsu the user takes a deep breath and then exhales several small blasts of wind chakra in such a manner that they are dispersed over an expansive range, enough to make it difficult to avoid them entirely without taking any damage. Due to the properties of this technique, the expelled blasts are capable of piercing into and potentially through an opponent's flesh when they collide, in a similar manner to how bullets function_. _Hand signs are rat, hare, and dog.' _Naruto raised a brow at the description, _'odd it sounds like a wind version of the phoenix flower jutsu.' _He thought before Akane spoke through the link.

"**Actually, Naruto-kun, it is,**** but the vacuum wave came first. I should know I'm the one who made the phoenix flower jutsu and then showed it to the ninja."** She said surprising Naruto a bit, _'well I didn't expect that.' _Was all he could say before picking up the fire style book. But instead of skipping the fire manipulation section he read through them and found that it was similar to wind manipulation; all he had to do was supper heat his chakra to burn a leaf, and the second step was to make a small pond boil or melt a boulder if a pond was not nearby. Reading further down he came to the following: _'warning it is recommended that you have a water user nearby incase of fire spreading to nearby trees/flammable objects.' _ Sighing quietly to himself Naruto flipped to the jutsu section of the book and found that the first technique was the phoenix flower jutsu, _'must be a popular technique then' _he thought, but sighed when he heard Akane giggling at his thought. _'You know I could change the Mindscape back to the sewer right?' _he asked and smirked when he heard he stop abruptly.

**"You wouldn't," **she dared.

_'Try me'_

**"Akane no like sewers! Akane a good girl!****"** Akane shouted childishly, curling into a little ball and sucking her thumb, similar to what a two year old would do.

Naruto sweat dropped,_ 'okay I was joking Akane-Chan, just calm down.' _He said to her she instantly stopped and pouted, **"you're no fun Naruto-kun." **She said before cutting the link. Naruto sighed again at her antics before reading the description of the jutsu

'_Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu_-_a technique that creates a volley of small fireballs, which are sent flying in an unpredictable manner assaulting the enemy. In addition, the flames are controlled with chakra, so avoiding them all is extremely difficult. Shuriken can also be concealed within the flames, creating an unexpected secondary surprise attack. Like the flames, the Shuriken can be controlled with chakra. For the most part, however, this technique is used as a distraction. Hand signs are rat, tiger, dog, ox, hare, and tiger'_ Naruto's eyes widened at the use of the jutsu while it wasn't the same as the vacuum wave it was close enough, _'now this would defiantly be useful.' _ He thought jotting it down and scanned for more techniques.

Then he found Sasuke's most used technique, the fireball, '_Fi__re Style: Fireball Jutsu-a technique where chakra kneaded inside the body is converted into fire, and expelled from the mouth either as a massive orb of roaring flame or as a continuous flame-thrower. The scope of the attack is altered by controlling the volume of chakra that is mustered. The released flames will engulf their target, and leave a crater on the ground's surface. This technique apparently requires more than average chakra reserves and most genin should not be able to do this technique hand signs are snake, tiger, monkey, boar, hoarse, and tiger .' _

'_And most genin don't have the chakra reserves of Kage ether.' _He thought with a smirk before it fell then became a wide grin when the first memories of his clones came to him the good news was that he could still do the Rasengan with the clone's help and the Wind Style: Rasengan could be made with only one clone and could throw it.

But the bad news was that wind manipulation and chakra control groups hadn't made much progress. They could cut half the leaf, and a quarter of the boulders but not much further than that and the control groups could get up the tree, and could walk on water, but the leaf balancers and floaters couldn't get it right yet. Neither could the senbon balancers; the damn needles kept flying off in different directions!

'_Well, one more jutsu and then to the shopping.' _ He thought while he wrote down the technique. Looking further into the book he found a really powerful technique he quickly scanned through the description and smirked before writing it down folding the paper pocketing it and left heading to the one store that he knew would give him service.

* * *

**Well there you go. What was the jutsu that he found? What is the store that will sell to Naruto? All will be revealed in time my friends.**

**Please review they feeds my inspiration.**


	4. training gear, and a big suprise

**Hello everyone and sorry if the last chapter was mostly describing the Jutsus I couldn't think of what else to put there but this one will hopefully make up for that with some more character develop meant oh and Naruto gets a surprise in this one too. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters and jutsus used in this fic other than those created by me.**

**Now to the story**

**Chapter 3: Training gear, and a Big surprise!**

* * *

Naruto smiled as he stood outside the Ten Points weapon shop. A small shop Tenten and her family owned. It looked small but on the inside it was absolutely huge! Inside the walls were lined with shelves and shelves of Kunai, Shuriken, Ninja Wire, swords and just about any bladed weapon you could think of. But what few knew and even fewer lived to tell was that the entire shop was covered with enlargement seals. The reason Naruto knew this was that Tenten had confidentially told him and then threatened to castrate him if he ever told a soul the first time he came in. Needless to say Naruto had vowed to never tell anyone. He would rather keep his man bits thank you.

As he stood there he thought back to when he had met the family of three. He had been running for his life for what felt like the thousandth time and had hidden from the mob behind the shop. Tenten's father, who had heard some noise, had come to investigate. What he had found was a starving, skin and bones, 5-year-old Naruto Uzumaki wearing very torn up and dirty clothes that couldn't even be classified as rags.

He had taken pity on him and had fed and sheltered him for the night. He had met Tenten that night too and she had become his first and best friend, they only acted like they didn't know each other for appearance. It had hurt the most when he saw Madara kill her and it broke his heart just thinking about it.

He snapped out of his now turned painful thoughts when the second group of clones dispelled transferring him their knowledge. He found that his chakra control had improved to the point to where the clones could balance a leaf on their hands and forearms but nowhere else, the senbon balance was better; meaning that the clones could now balance a needle on three of their fingers, and the Rasengan took more time to do one-handed then with a clone, but it was improving. The wind manipulation was going well too, they were able to cut the leaves all the way through with their chakra now and had moved to the boulders, which had could now be cut half way through.

Sighing to himself he walked in to the Ten Points and immediately knew something was not right.

The entire shop was deathly quiet. Nothing moved, and you could have heard a pin drop. It unnerved him. He almost jumped out of his skin when a hand was placed firmly on his shoulder, turning slowly he found that the hand belonged to Tenten. Said girl had an aurora of death around her and Naruto swore that he could see the Shinigami hovering above her.

Gulping he nervously greeted her "H-Hi T-Tenten," he said with a stutter. Next thing that he knew was that she had whisked him into the storage room, tied him up, and placed a silencing seal on the door. "You," she pointed to him. "Have some explaining to do, and if I'm not satisfied with your answer I will castrate you with a dull and rusty Kunai," his eyes widened at this, "got that?" He nodded the fastest he ever had in his life.

"Now care to explain why one moment I'm watching your fight against Madara," he eyes widened. "And the next I'm waking up and I'm 14 again?" she finished with a scowl. If Naruto's eyes could get any wider they'd be rolling on the floor. _'Akane-Chan, how is this even possible? How could she even come back with me?' _he asked desperately trying to wrap his mind around the situation.

"**I-I don't know Naruto-kun. The only thing that I can think of is that she was the closest one to you when my chakra surged through you and she got caught in the jutsu with you." **She shakily explained.

"T-Tenten I don't know what your t-talking about." He tried to play it off as a 'I don't know what you're talking about and you just grabbed me, and tied me up for no reason' kind of thing.

"Don't play with me Naruto!" Tenten shouted. "I know you had something to do with this! I saw you at training ground 45 ordering your clones to do chakra control, wind manipulation, the Rasengan and its wind variants. If that isn't enough I know you didn't know the secret to the shadow clone until you started wind manipulation." She said with a smirk as she knew she got him with that.

Naruto knew that she got him, "alright you got me. What is it you want to know?" he sighed/asked.

"Everything." She said with a grin.

So he explained everything, how Madara had killed everyone, how he had went berserk and destroyed him, when he had met the real Kyuubi, and turned back the time. Everything to the point of now, "and I guess you being the nearest me when I collapsed got wrapped in Akane-Chan's chakra." He finished.

Tenten rubbed her chin with a thoughtful look as she processed what she had just heard. "So let me get this straight Madara killed us all," Naruto nodded. "You lost control of the Kyuubi's chakra," he nodded again. "Destroyed every inch of him with a massive Rasenshuriken," a nod. "Then you collapsed and ended up in your Mindscape and met the Kyuubi-who by the way is a female and is named Akane-found out that she was under a Genjutsu and that she knew your mother," Another nod. "She then sent her chakra through you to turn back the clock 5 years," another nod. "And me being the closest to you when you collapsed ended up getting wrapped up in the chakra to do said time travel." A nod again. "and then you found that Kyuubi's human form is a smoking hot vixen woman," again a nod. "And you have feelings for her." A nod-wait, "what?" He asked with a blush.

"You can't fool me Naru-kun I saw the blush you had when you were talking about Akane-san." She said with a smirk.

"I-Is it really that obvious?" Naruto asked in dismay.

"Yeah it is," Tenten said with a sigh then asked something that completely blew his mind, "can I meet her?"

"H-Huh?" he stuttered with wide eyes.

"Oh come on Naruto-kun how many people can say that they've met the strongest being on the planet who just so happens to be a female? So can I meet her? Pwease with a cherry on top." She said with the puppy dog eyes and her lower lip pouting at him.

'_I must resist the look…but it's so cute…NO I MUST RESIST THE LOOK.' _ He thought desperately trying to resist her look. He was having relative success until Tenten added tears to her eyes.

'_NO NOT THE TEARY EYES!' H_e thought crying anime tears as his defenses fell and he gave in.

"All right…just untie me first; these ropes are a little tight." He said in pain at the last bit.

"Oh sorry," she said smiling sheepishly and undoing the ropes.

After she had untied them Naruto got up, "alright I'll let you meet her." Tenten smiled brightly at that, "but not here, walk with me to training ground 45 after I've restocked my supplies and gotten a better outfit then I'll let you meet her okay?" he said/asked quickly seeing her expression go from happy to dangerous then to contemplative in a matter of seconds.

Sighing to herself she asked, "that's probably the best I'm going to get isn't it?"

"Pretty much yeah" Naruto said with a smirk.

"Oh alright. Just hurry up." Tenten said with dangerous expression, ripping the silencing seal off the door and letting him out.

"Okay!" he said quickly, jumping out of the closet, grabbing 4 sets of Kunai, and 5 sets of Shuriken before turning and heading to the clothing section. Grabbing some that caught his interest he headed to the changing room.

Setting his equipment down on the bench beside them he entered and changed into the new clothes.

"Wow." Tenten said with a blush staining her face and some blood dripping from her nose when she caught sight of Naruto in his new outfit.

What he was wearing was a skin-tight, fishnet shirt that showed his developing muscles and six-pack abs, black Anbu style pants that stopped about mid calf and had tape going from where they stopped down to his feet that were in black Shinobi sandals, finger-less gloves that had a medal plate on them (similar to Kakashi's), he had changed the cloth to his head band to black (similar to his Shippuden one). As she got a closer look at him her thoughts went into perverted territory.

Even Akane, who had been a blushing mess when she had heard Naruto's semi confession of having feelings for her, was having trouble controlling her blush and thoughts at Naruto's new look. _**'Wait, do I even like him that way?'** _She asked herself. As she was having her inner conflicts Naruto had moved to Tenten and was waving his hand in front of her face.

"Hello, Konoha to Tenten are you there?" He asked snapping his fingers in front of her face.

"Huh?" she asked coming out of her daze and blushing even more when she saw how close Naruto was to her. "I asked if you okay?" he said with concern visible in his eyes.

"O-oh y-yeah I'm fine" she stuttered. "Good" he said leaning back with a smile before he turned a bit nervous, "um, Tenten where do you keep the chakra paper? Akane said that I might have gained a secondary element and I check if I did." He said a bit sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck creating an image that Tenten squealed _'KAWAI' _at in her mind.

Tenten somehow pulled herself together to reply, if a bit shakily, "I-I was just about to get them when you walked in." She walked back into the storage room. Naruto sighed as she walked back out with a couple of packages of chakra paper (an: in this story they're sold in packs) and proceeded to place them on a nearby empty shelf leaving one out for both him and her.

Seeing the extra pack out Naruto was about to ask when she answered for him. "What? Can't I train in my elements too? I mean if you gained another affinity I could have too you know."

"**She is right Naru-kun she could have also gained a secondary element but it would probably be weaker than yours seeing as she wasn't the target for the jutsu." **Akane said through the link.

Naruto's eyes widened at this before sighing and saying in a quiet voice "I guess we might as well see if you did then, Tenten. Akane-Chan says that it's a possibility." Much to Tenten's joy "Alright let me just ring this up and then well be on our way." She said excitedly walking over to behind the register and ringing up his total. "Alright your total is 747.39 yen." (I don't know how much that really is so I just put down a number.)

Naruto sighed paying for his purchase. "Okay let's go now it's starting to get late-" he stopped abruptly and grabbed his head in pain, when another group of clones dispelled. Seeing her friend's condition Tenten rushed to his side and worriedly asked, "you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine just too many clones dispelling at once is all." Naruto said before muttering something that Tenten thought sounded like 'stupid clones and their pranks' causing her to giggle when asked about it she said, "nothing just thought of something funny," through barely held giggles.

Turning towards the back of the shop Tenten shouted "Dad I'm going out for a bit!" and received a muffled okay.

With that they walked out.

_**Training grounds**_

"Okay we're here," Naruto said walking on to the training ground. Tenten seeing the shadow clones still training in their respectable tasks whistled, "that's not as many as I've seen you make but it's still impressive." She complimented.

"You should have seen it before the last three groups dispelled. Now we're here for a reason aren't we." Naruto began with a smirk but finished with a serious expression as both he and Tenten took out a slip of chakra paper.

"You go first Naruto. I know what they do but I've never seen it before except with my earth nature." Tenten said.

Naruto nodded pushing his chakra into it. What happened was a bit of a surprise; the paper splitting wasn't, nor was one half being burnt to a crisp. What was surprising was that the last split in half again and the top piece crinkled into a small ball, and the bottom got so soggy that it was basically mush.

"H-how is that possible? I expected the wind and fire but not the lightning and water." _ 'Akane-Chan how is it that I have four affinities?' _he said/ asked and then thought to Tenten and then Akane.

"I-I don't know." Tenten said in disbelief.

**"I thought that this might happen." ** Akane said more to herself than to Naruto, but he still heard her.

_'What do you mean?' _ Sighing to herself she began explaining. **"What I meant was that I thought that your chakra reserve would increase to the point that you would get your parents affinities as your mother had water and your father had lightning." **She finished _'so the fact that my chakra control is shot is that my reserve increased not that my body has none at this point in time?' _he asked.

"**Not entirely but mostly it's the fact that at the moment your chakra control sucks." ** She said with a giggle. A vein popped on Naruto's head and his eyebrow started twitching in annoyance. Breathing deep to calm himself he turned to Tenten who had looked at him for an explanation. Sighing to himself he explained "Akane-Chan says that the reason I have four natures instead of two is that my reserves increased so much that I gained both my parents natures, mom being water, dad the lightning."

"Right," she said in an amazed voice before something clicked. "Hey Naruto-kun, could the same could have happened to me?" she asked making his eyes widen, **"before you ask yes it's possible, slim, but possible and that her chakra reserves could now rival yours when you were this age, now not counting." **Akane said.

"Akane-Chan says that it is slim but not impossible and that your reserves could rival mine when I was originally thirteen. That was close to Kage level so looks like you got some control training to do." Naruto told her with a smirk, making her groan. "Well, we'll worry about that later. Let's take a look." Naruto said making her nod before pushing chakra into the paper. What happened was another surprise it split in half, one half crumbled, the other split again, one part got soggy and the other burnt to ashes. "Okay so that's earth, fire, wind, and water. My dad has water, Akane gave me fire, earth was my original and I'm guessing that my mom gave me wind."

"It looks like your earth and wind are strongest though, seeing as the wind happened twice and there's nothing left of the earth but dust." Naruto said. He began to think out loud when something crossed his mind, "if her reserves are large enough what's stopping me from-"

"What was that?" Tenten interrupted.

"I was just thinking, that since your reserves are large enough I could teach you the Shadow Clone Jutsu." He explained with a wide grin that Tenten quickly mirrored when she got his line of thought.

"Please Naruto-kun teach me the Shadow Clone! It'll make training so much easier!" She all but demanded.

"I was going to anyway Tenten-Chan, since we're in this together we need to get as strong as we can, as fast as we can. Because I am not letting you all die again." Naruto said with a determined fire burning in his eyes.

Tenten however blush when she heard the suffix added to her name, a fact the Naruto missed, but Akane noticed, _'since when he call me/__**her**__ Tenten-Chan?' _They both thought, one with a blush, the other with a slight growl. Naruto of course was as oblivious as ever.

"**Naruto-kun can we get on with the lesson please," **Akane said in a sickly sweet voice that could melt ice.

_'Y-Yes Akane-Chan,' _he thought nervously.

"Right listen carefully Tenten." He said snapping her out of her thoughts. As he started to explain the jutsu and its workings

_**An hour later**_

"So that's how the Shadow Clone jutsu works." He finished explaining.

He looked over to see Tenten with wide eyes and her mouth wide open. "You know if you don't close your mouth you'll catch flies in it. That snapped her out of her surprised state "that was surprising Naruto-kun you actually went into detail and explained things that even I didn't know about the jutsu how'd you find all that out?" she asked.

Naruto snorted, "You do know how I graduated, right?" He asked rhetorically.

"Oh right sorry." She said sheepishly.

"It's alright besides you know I'm smarter than I look."

"I know" she sighed sadly remembering how they had met.

"Now how about giving the jutsu a try?" he asked

"Yeah!" she said pounding her fist into her open hand.

Putting her hand in the cross seal, she shouted out, "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

There were numerous poofs of smoke and when it cleared all they could do was stair.

"This was unexpected."

* * *

**wow this took a while to write. Quiet the surprise he got there isn't it? **

**Now Tenten is in the harem, but I will be giving you all the choice of the final girl in a poll. once i get it up you all will have until Friday to vote on the one you want.**

**Oh, and I posted a website to what my Fem. Kyuubi looks like on my profile so please take a look of it**

**Please review everyone.**


	5. meetings, training, and feelings

**Hey everyone here is a new chap for ya and I am sad to say that I will not be able to update as fast as I have but I will still update when I can. As for the poll it's a pretty even match between Fu, and Hana.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters/jutsus that are used in this story. I only own this story and my original jutsus.**

**Now to the story**

* * *

**Chapter 4: meetings, training, and feelings. **

"This was unexpected" Naruto said in disbelief as he stared at the numerous Tentens standing in the field. There were 150 of them!

"No shit Sherlock." One of the Naruto clones who had stopped training to view the events said. Growing a tick mark Naruto hit it over the head and dispelled it gaining its knowledge. Tenten who had been staring at her copies snapped out of her state at the sound of the clone dispelling. "I made this many and don't even feel winded." She said in a shocked voice. "Yeah your reserves are defiantly rivaling mine when I was originally 13." Naruto said with a chuckle but then turned serious, "now it's my turn." He said putting his hands in his favorite seal, "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" he shouted creating one hundred of his own.

"ATTENTION!" A clone shouted, snapping into a solute and all the clones' (Tenten's too) mimicked it.

Sweat dropping at their clones antics Naruto started handing out orders "Alright everyone, we have a lot of training to do and a short time to do it in!" he started "I need you all to divide into groups of 25 each and pair up with a group of Tenten's clones." He waited for them to do so, "group one!" He pointed to the group of the pairs clones on the left.

"Will start Tenten on her wind manipulation and then join in with my own; we need it as strong as we can possibly get it." He pointed to the group in front, "group two will start with the wind jutsus that we picked up earlier." He turned to the group on the right, "group three will start on fire manipulation." He turned to the group behind them, "group four will work on the fire jutsus." Turning to one of the groups of Tenten's clones he said, "group 5 will work on Tenten's earth manipulation." He pointed to the last group of 25 Tenten, "and group six will work on chakra control start with the basics and then move to the more difficult ones."

He turned to Tenten "anything you want to add Ten-Chan?" he asked, getting a blush for the use of a nickname for her, getting herself together she replied, "not that I can think of, but keep the instructions simple for my clones and to those working on earth manipulation you know what to do so no slacking off." She said at first to Naruto, then to his clones and then to her clones who all nodded. Naruto addressed all the clones "Now…GET TO WORK!" he shouted getting a yelled, "yes boss!" before they all set out on their tasks.

He turned back to Tenten, "How much chakra do you have left?" He asked. She smirked and answered him, "that wasn't even half my new reserve." She said a little smugly. "Good then make one more clone." He said making another copy of himself. This got a raised eyebrow from her but she complied none the less.

He turned to the two clones. "Alright. You two will be going to the library to check out the basics for lightning and water manipulation. Then check for Ninjutsu. Wright each your own copy then come back and dispel. Got all that?" he finished "yes boss." Was his reply from his copy, he got a simple yes from Tenten's clone before they set off.

Naruto faced Tenten who was staring at him wide eyed. "Something on my face?" he asked with a grin. "N-No… it's just that I didn't know that you could be so commanding." She said with a small blush staining her cheeks.

Sighing quietly Naruto sat down and motioned to Tenten to do the same. _'So how do I bring someone into my mindscape with me Akane-Chan?' _he asked over their link, after Tenten had sat beside him. Thinking for a minute Akane remembered how Kushina had brought Minato into her mindscape once when he (Minato) wanted to meet her (Akane). **"If I remember this right you should join hands and put your foreheads together and let me do the rest." **She explained. After Naruto had relayed the message to Tenten and had done as instructed. She pulled them in.

* * *

'_**Naruto's mindscape'**_

Opening her eyes the first thing that Tenten saw was that she was in a clearing of forest that was surrounded by a lake, meadows, and all kinds of wild life but mostly foxes. Her eyes widened when she turned to Naruto. What she saw was that he was in his older form, something Naruto seemed to miss on his last visit.

Opening his eyes he saw that Tenten was staring at him with wide eyes, "okay what now?" He asked with a sigh. "Y-You're in your older f-form," she stuttered. Naruto's eyes widened before he noticed that Tenten was in hers too. "S-So are you." He said in shock making her eyes widen.

"**So you finally noticed eh Naruto-kun?" **said a voice off to their right. Looking over to the voice they found Akane sitting against a tree smirking at them. "Noticed what?" Naruto asked confused.

Sighing at his lack of attention she said, **"that since we've come back that whenever you come to the mindscape you're in your older body." **Their eyes widened even further at this, "b-but how is that possible." Tenten stuttered drawing Akane's attention to her. Akane's eyes narrowed at her, _**'so this is the other one that likes Naruto,'** _she thought, but on the outside she replied with a strained smile, **"the reason why your both in your older forms is that your mind matures at a faster rate than your bodies, so when we came back…to put in simple terms is that basically your older minds were merged with your younger bodies. That's why you had a hard time moving this morning Naruto-kun your mind was more adapted to your older form then it was to your younger." **That drew looks of understanding from the both of them.

"**Now if you will excuse us Naruto-kun I do believe Tenten-san and I need to have a chat." **She said snapping her fingers and both her and Tenten vanished in a small pop. "Okaaaay? That was weird." Naruto said, a confused expression on his face.

* * *

'_**Different part of Naruto's mind'**_

Tenten was confused one minute she was sitting in front of Naruto when Akane snapped her fingers and the next she was in a completely different place (to skip the description it's the place Minato took Naruto to talk when Naruto had released his 8 tailed form). Standing in front of her was Akane who had her hands on her hips and had a frown on her face. "Okay what was it you wanted to talk about?" She asked a little nervous.

"**I want to know what your intentions for Naruto-kun are." **She all but demanded. Tenten's eyes widened at her. She got what she meant but she tried to play it off as if she didn't know what she was talking about. "W-what do you-"**Don't play with me girl. I've seen how you look at him when he's not looking, I'm all for sharing but I will not allow anyone to be with him if they intend to do him harm." **She exclaimed then widened her eyes at her slip-up. She had basically admitted to having feelings for Naruto and that she didn't mind sharing him ether all in one go.

Meanwhile, Tenten was both wide eyed in shock and happy at the same time. Shocked that the Kyuubi liked Naruto that way; and happy that she was willing to share him. Yes she had realized a long time ago that she had feelings for Naruto. It had been during his three year trip she hadn't noticed it right-a-way but she had been spending a lot more time thinking about him, missing him, hell she even went to the village gate every day to see if he was back yet, and it had hurt that she was away from the village when he returned. But when she had saw him on the Gaia (fem. Gaara) retrieval mission her heart had nearly popped out of her chest and she almost couldn't control her blush when she saw how hot he had become, that and she had just barley controlled the impulse to take him right then and there.

Blushing at where her thoughts had gone to she snapped out of it and saw that Akane had been staring at her intently. "Don't worry I don't intend to hurt him in any way, shape, or form." She said.

**"Good then we won't have a problem, and you don't need to worry Naruto likes you too." **She said causing Tenten to blush but almost squeal in joy, yes having access to her hosts thoughts had its benefits. **"But I get him first." **Akane said with a perverted smile.

"Oh come on. You're no fun." Tenten pouted.

Akane smirked to her before her expression turned thoughtful, **"Now the only problem is how to make him ours." **She thought out loud and then an idea popped into her head. she gained a devious look.

"I think I'm gonna like the idea you have if the look on your face is to go by," Tenten said. **"Oh you will, but in order for this to work we're going to need at least one more girl, two tops."** Tenten just smirked at this

"I really wouldn't mind that I mean I've seen some of the other girls that like Naruto-kun and trust me when I say I wouldn't mind sharing him especially with that Suna kunoichi Gaia. Besides with the way his life has been Naruto needs all the love he can get." She said with a perverted smile. Yes Tenten was secretly bi and had a bit of a crush on Gaia. But the only one she would ever love and give herself to would be one Naruto Uzumaki, however, that didn't mean that she wouldn't look and appreciate what the female body had to offer. Akane blushed at the implications of what Tenten said before turning serious. They discussed their plan and decided that they would make their moves when the opportunities presented themselves they smiled evilly nodding at one another before Akane snapped her fingers and they rejoined Naruto.

* * *

'_**Main part of the mindscape'**_

Naruto had been setting in the same spot for the better part of an hour and had been getting bored before he heard the two girls reappear. Turning to them he caught sight of their smiles and gulped nervously. He didn't like those looks at all.

"S-So h-how'd it go?" he asked with a stutter.

**"Very good wouldn't you say Ten-Chan?" **Akane said/asked with a grin.

"Oh yes, very, very good Akane-Chan." Tenten said with a grin of her own.

"Anything I need to know?" Naruto asked.

"All in due time Naru-kun." Tenten said.

"I see." He sighed. "We need to get back to training Tenten."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She turned to Akane. "Well Akane-Chan it was nice meeting you and thank you for…you know." She said with a small blush and a wink. **"Yes, nice meeting you and you are very welcome." **Akane said with a wide grin pushing them out of the seal.

* * *

'_**Outside the mindscape'**_

"Well now that that's over with we might as well start the physical training." Naruto said with a slight frown. Out of all the things that the shadow clones could do it couldn't transfer physical abilities. Use the physical abilities of the original? Yes. Transfer new? No.

"Yeah, I guess but they should have invented a seal to go…with…this...jutsu." She said trailing off slowly at the end when she saw Naruto's eyes steadily getting wider.

When Tenten had said that, Naruto had gotten an idea. What if he could make a seal to switch the knowledge transference to physical transference? The answer was so simple yet so hard at the same time because as to make the actual seal would take more talent then he currently had with seals. But hey he wasn't an Uzumaki for nothing.

Naruto suddenly jumped up, grabbed her and wrapped her in a hug and started to jump up and down wildly "Tenten! I could just kiss you!" he shouted. Tenten meanwhile blushed with a small smile and Akane just smirked.

'_Now's my/__**her**__ chance!' _They both thought as Tenten put her arms on Naruto's shoulders to stop him from jumping, and smashed her lips against his.

Naruto's eyes widened when he felt her lips against his. Tenten was kissing him. He couldn't believe it. He had liked her for a while before the time jump but had never expected this to happen. But now he was confused, he knew he liked Akane too, and he didn't know what to do. One part of his mind was telling him that this was wrong and that he should stop this, but another was telling that part to shut the hell up and enjoy it.

Naruto being Naruto listened to his instinct which was the part that was telling the other to shut up and enjoy. So he leaned into it.

Tenten was surprised when Naruto who she was expecting to push her away instead leaned in and started to move his lips in sync with her own. To her she was in heaven, she was kissing the boy-no man of her dreams.

Deciding to take this up a notch Naruto parted his lips and licked her lower lip asking for entrance. Tenten was surprised even more when she felt Naruto's tongue rubbing her lower lip and gladly let him in. In a battle of tongs they explored each other's mouths to Tenten's surprise Naruto's mouth tasted not like Ramen, like she had expected, but oranges and grapes mixed. To Naruto Tenten's mouth tasted like cherries.

Moaning, Tenten pulled away, earning a disappointed groan from Naruto. "T-That was my first kiss." She shakily said. Naruto's eyes widened at this. "I-It was mine t-too." He said blushing brightly (the kiss with Sasuke never happened). Tenten looked down and then noticing their position. It seemed that somehow she had ended up straddling Naruto's waist and had her hands on either side of his head. Naruto looked to the side when he noticed their position and saw that their clones had gathered to watch the show. Looking back up to her he said "um, Tenten?"

"Yeah?"

"It looks like we have an audience." Naruto gestured with his head to the gathered clones. She looked over to said clones who seemed to realize that they had been spotted and rushed back to their tasks.

"U-um? Tenten c-could you get up? not that I don't love to have a beautiful woman such as yourself on top of me but this could cause unwanted problems if someone were to see us like this." Naruto said with a sheepish smile.

Blushing at the compliment Tenten sighed but complied. "So, um, what does this make us now?" Naruto asked nervously, not sure what to do after all that.

"This would make you my boyfriend. And before you ask, yes, Akane knows about your feelings toward her as well as me and it goes the same for us towards you" Tenten said smirking, she leaning in and whispered huskily into his ear, "just too let you know I don't mind sharing and neither does she." Naruto's eyes widened for what felt like the hundredth time today and asked inwardly _'A-Akane-Chan is t-this true?' _there was a moment of silence before,** "yes, Naru-kun it is." **Akane said quietly.

_'Then does this mean that you want to be with me as well?' _

**"Y-Yes" **she stuttered shyly.

Naruto couldn't believe that not only did he get not one but two super hot girlfriends and all in one day too. Naturally he did the only thing he could in this situation...he fainted due to an over loaded brain and a mega-watt smile on his face.

* * *

'_**Later that night' **_

After Naruto had regained consciousness he couldn't stop smiling, even through the physical work out from hell that he put them through that day whenever they looked at each other they would both have that shit eating grin. It seemed the clones they had made to go to the library had seen fit to drop their jutsu lists at their respective homes and dispelled.

Though the lists seemed interesting several lightning, water, and more fire jutsu for the both of them, there did not seem to be too many wind jutsu seeing as was the rarest element and Konoha didn't have that many users of said element.

Even at the end of the day they could say they were at the very least half as skilled as they were before the war (Naruto having several more jutsu down now than before even more so) though they'd have to remember to ask ether Gaia or Temari for some wind jutsu when the invasion was over.

Naruto's face darkened at the thought of the invasion, the thing that had started most of his pain, losing his jiji, Sasuke's defection, and him ultimately completing his nindo. He had so many things to prevent; Sasuke getting the cursed seal, jiji dying, and now that he thought about it Kakashi's favoritism, as that and seeing Naruto getting stronger had driven Sasuke over the edge. Overall he and Tenten had a lot of hard work and training to do. Naruto had walked Tenten home to the Ten Points, hand in hand, and she had left him after a fierce make out session and a promise to meet up the next day. Before walking inside with a small blush.

All in all a very productive day were his last thoughts before going to sleep anticipating the next day.

* * *

**So how'd you like it? I know that Naruto, Akane, and Tenten getting together was a little early but hey they're ninja they could die at any moment even if they're from the future and know what is to come. Team placements are next chap and the poll announcement as well. **

**Yes I have decided to add one more girl to the harem and she will be the fem. Gaara (known as Gaia). So if any of you have any problems that then please keep them to yourselves because this is my story and I'm doing with it as I please**

**So please review and I promise that I'll update as soon as I can but, like I said I'll be busy for the next few weeks. **


	6. team assignments

**Hello everyone another chap for ya all hope you like it and it looks like the winner of the poll is (drum roll)… fu! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters/jutsu. I only own this story and the jutsus I make up.**

**Now on to the story.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: team assignments, and a contract?**

Naruto woke up in a very good mood. Until he remembered what today was that is, _'team assignment day.' _He thought at the memories of what happened the first time around and his mood soured even more. **"Calm down Naru-kun they'll get what's coming to them."** Akane said referring to his two 'future' team mates.

'_Yeah I guess. Hey pull me in for a minute Akane–Chan." _She raised a brow but did as asked. When he got there he walked right up to her and pulled her down into a kiss that quickly turned into a fierce tongue duel.

After a couple of minutes he pulled back from a shocked and red faced Akane, **"w-what was that for?" **she asked breathlessly.

"What can't I kiss one of my girlfriends?" he asked with a grin.

**"N-No... I mean, um, ah." **She was left a stuttering mess as he chuckled and put a figure to her lips to quiet her.

"I was joking don't take it so seriously Akane-Chan" he said softly. Blushing even more she pouted at him, **"you're no fun Naru-kun. Just for that I won't offer you the surprise that could solve your Rasenshuriken problem." **She said turning away from him with a smirk.

Naruto's eyes widened, "Y-you've found a way around the Rasenshuriken?" he shakily asked. **"Yep. But since you've seen fit to tease me I won't tell you." **She said with her back still turned to him.

Naruto got down on his knees and clasped his hands in front of his chest, "please Akane-Chan tell me. I'll do anything you ask." Quirking and eye brow she turned to him, **"anything?" **she asked.

"Yes anything" he repeated with a pleading expression.

"**Maybe if you," **she bent down to whisper in his ear, **"kiss me again." ** His eyes widened before he pulled her down to him claimed her lips with his and kissed her passionately yet again.

"You know if you wanted another kiss all you had to do was ask." He said with a small grin after he had pulled back.

**"I know but I had to pay you back somehow after that." **Akane said with a grin of her own.

"Um, Akane-Chan?" Naruto started slowly **"Hm?" **she indicated that she was listening. "Did you really mean what you said about finding a way around my Rasenshuriken problem?" he asked somewhat excitedly.

**"Yeah I did."** She said with a big grin.

"What is it?"

Akane stood in thought for a moment before speaking,** "As you know you need a summoning contract to use sage mode right?"** Naruto nodded. **"Well what if I told you that a certain clan of summons had the same thing?" **his eyes nearly popped out of his head, **"and that I was the boss of said clan." ** He raised a shaking finger at her, "Y-You mean that there's a fox clan and that they have sage mode?" He asked in an equally shaken voice, **"yes there is. The toads are actually close allies with us and they shared some of their techniques with us, Senjutsu being one of them." **She finished with a smirk.

Next thing she knew was that Naruto had tackled her and was now raining her face in kisses all the while saying thank you. Getting control of himself he realized what he was doing and quickly got up pulling Akane with him, "Sorry." He said sheepishly.

"**It's alright Naruto-kun. I understand." **She said with a chuckle.

**"So are you willing to sign it?" **She asked before noticing his hesitant look, **"yes you could resign the toad contract too." **Akane said rolling her eyes. "How would that be possible? I thought that someone could only have one contract?" he asked in confusion.

"**Normally yes they could only have one, seeing as summonings are far and few between. But if one were to have two allied contracts and they agree to have the same summoner than it is possible to have more than one contract, and since I'm the boss of the fox clan and I agree you could defiantly have the toad summons again." **Akane explained to a now stunned Naruto. Said blonde's stunned look ever so slowly changed from stunned, to a small smile, then to a shit eating grin that could have been seen from space.

Gathering her hands in his Naruto got down on one knee, "Akane-Chan have I ever told you how much I love you?"

Akane blushed a red that would make a tomato seem pale, **"N-No I don't think that you h-have." **He raised an eyebrow. "I haven't? Well, I'll just have to correct that mistake by saying it every day until I am worthy of your love." He said playfully. "But getting back to business; yes I will sign the contract for the fox clan." He said back to serious mode.

"**Very well than Naruto, you know how to sign it, so I don't think that I have to explain that part. But this contract has a different seal sequence then the regular." **Akane explained getting her blush under control and summoning the contract to her side with a flick of a tail.

"Different seal sequence?" Naruto asked.

** "Yes. Even I don't know why. But I figure that it's because each tailed beast has a summoning clan and each seal sequence for their contracts differ from the norm."**

In truth the sage of six paths had decided the hand seals for the summoning clans of the tailed beasts were to be different than the normal contracts. The reasons not even the beasts themselves knew.

"**Now sign the contract and I'll tell you the hand signs." **Akane said handing Naruto the large scroll.

Unraveling it Naruto noticed that he would be the first fox summoner. Biting his thumb until it bled he signed it, then pressing his still bleeding thumb to each of his other fingers, he left an imprint of each of his fingers on the contract.

"**Congratulations, Naruto-kun, you are now the first summoner of the fox clan." **She said with a proud smile. **"Now the hand signs are dog, horse, ox, horse, tiger, and fox." ** She said showing him the last seal. It looked similar to the dragon seal but the ring fingers were straight with the tips touching and the thumbs apart.

Naruto nodded to her as a thought struck him, "hey, Akane-Chan, would it be possible for Ten-Chan to sign it too?"

**"Yes it would. In fact I was hoping that you would ask. Because if she does want to sign I'd be more than happy to except her as my clans second summoner." **She said.

Just as Naruto was about to say something Akane interrupted realizing the time, **"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry, but you need to get to the academy; you've been in here so long that you barely have time to get ready." **She said pushing him out of the mindscape.

* * *

'_**Outside the mindscape'**_

Coming to and finding that he was still lying on his bed Naruto looked over to the clock and saw he barley had over twenty minutes to get there. Jumping out of bed he ran to the bathroom stripping out of his night close, quickly showered changed into his new clothes that he got the day before and left.

While he was on his way he saw Tenten walking with her team, (Gai not being present because of team assignments) smirking to himself he rushed past just barely missing them.

"W-What was that?" Neji Hyuuga, the team's resident arrogant ass and deep believer in fate, coughed through the smoke.

"I don't know but that persons flames of youth are burning brightly! If I cannot match them I will run around the village one hundred times on my hands, and if I can't do that I will-" Lee was cut off by Tenten's fist impacting his head.

"Gees, Lee, that's enough!" She exclaimed, annoyed at his exuberance. _'I'm so going to get you for that Naru-kun, all that just to hand me a note?' _ She thought slipping her hand into her pocket where said note was currently at.

Naruto meanwhile had just managed to get to the academy with five minutes to spare._ 'A new record. That's five minutes faster than the last time.' _He thought with a smirk walking into the class room a seeing that he was one of the last to arrive.

He almost froze at seeing all his friends again, but he had been prepared for the shock of seeing them even if it still hurt. These were the friends that didn't know what it meant to be a shinobi, the ones that were still naive to the world around them, and this time he would save them.

Sitting down at the back of the class he started a conversation with Akane through the link, _'so Akane-Chan anything I should know about the fox sage mode?' _he asked somewhat curious about it. Taking a moment to gather her thoughts she started to explain, **"the fox sage mode is in essence the same as the toads with a few minor differences." **

_'Such as?' _

**"Such as instead of the bar like pupil it is instead a vertical slit. And the pigment around the eyes is a darker shade of red instead of orange. But once you gain the toad contract again you should be able to switch between the two looks, maybe even combined them."**(1)

His eyes glazed over in thought about all the information. _'So I'd be able to throw the Rasenshuriken again, thus losing the risk to my arm. That could really come in handy especially against Orochimaru' _he thought. **"That's why I gave you the contract Naruto-kun we need you as strong as we can get you and sage mode is a big advantage." **Akane explained her reasoning's behind the contract. **"That, and I think that it's time that the foxes finally had a summoner."**

Just as Naruto was about to reply he heard a rumbling and knew what that meant, _'the fan girls are coming,' _he shivered. He was Glad that he didn't have any at this point in time. Yes he had had a fan club after the pain attack and it wasn't enjoyable. He could honestly say it was the only thing he had never envied Sasuke for. To him fan girls were useless excuses of kunoichi. The only exception being Ino who took her training seriously.

The door burst open and in came the tidal wave of Sasuke's fan girls said emo who had been sitting quietly in his corner brooding ignored them.

And right after a fight had broken out at who would sit next to the said emo, Iruka Umino, the class teacher, came into the room. After the Chunin had surveyed the scene he sweat dropped. "Good morning class please take a seat." He said.

Said class ignored him. He grew a tick mark before smirking and performing a hand sign, "I SAID SHUT UP AND TAKE A SEAT!" he shouted, his head enlarging to the point that it was twice its normal size, his patented 'Demon Headed Jutsu'. That got the class (mostly the arguing fan girls) to calm down and do as instructed.

"Now that that is over with I can start with the team placements. Team one is…" Naruto tuned out the unimportant ones that he knew wouldn't pass their real graduation tests until it came to the ones he remembered "team seven is Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno-" there was a loud screech of, "HA TOLD YOU PIG HE'S MINE!"

"And Naruto Uzumaki," there was an even louder screech form the banshee again. " WHAT? But Iruka-sensei, Naruto-baka didn't even pass his graduation exam!" She said in a mixture of disbelief and anger.

"Actually I did pass. It seems that I have too much chakra to control for the normal clone jutsu so the Hokage gave me a more chakra consuming clone technique, which I was easily able to perform." Naruto spoke from his corner in the back of the room.

"YEAH RIGHT BAKA STOP LYING AND GET OUT OF HERE" Sakura screeched jumping up to punch him.

Naruto seeing it coming dodged, grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her back, and pinned her against the wall. "We may be teammates and I may be willing to work with you Sakura-san, but your days of abusing me are over. I never liked you to begin with so why should I let you continue it any longer?" Naruto spoke to her in a cold voice that sent shivers down the class's spines. "And as for me lying about having too much chakra it's true as I have never been able to perform the regular clone technique, and the one you just tried to punch is a copy of me." Spoke a voice above them.

The class looked up to see Naruto sitting on the roof upside down. The girls blushed at his new look and most of the guys muttered show off.

"As you can see he is indeed telling the truth Sakura-san, now could you tell your clone let her go Naruto?" Iruka asked in a calm voice. He had known the real Naruto had been there the entire time. Though, he had almost missed him.

Naruto just looked at the scared Chunin for a moment before looking towards his clone that nodded and dispelled in a poof.

"Now that the distraction is over with Team eight is Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Hinata Hyuuga. Since team nine is still in circulation from last year team ten is Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara. Your senseis will be here in an hour so use that time to get to know your teammates and have lunch. And I would like to congratulate you all for making it this far in your careers." Iruka finished before walking out of the room.

Naruto jumped down from the roof drawing everyone's attention to him before walking to the door and turning to the rest of the room. "I don't know about you all but I've got someone to meet for launch so see you all in an hour," he said and walked out of the door.

* * *

**Hope you all liked the chap. And the teams meeting with Kakashi and the bell test is next so tune in for the next.**

**(1)-Imagine what sage mode mixed with the kyuubi's chakra looks like. It's similar to that.**

**Please review they feed my mind.**


	7. testing out the contract and the bell te

**Hey people here's the next chap. Hope you all like it.**

**To ****Darkryus****: I'm sorry to say she can't. I usually prefer big harems but I think to start ill just write this with 4 girls for Naruto maybe the next one sorry.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, any associated characters or jutsu. I just own this story and my own original techniques.**

**Now to the story.**

"..." normal speech

'…' _normal thoughts_

"…" **tailed beast/summons speech**

'…' _**tailed beast/summons thoughts**_

* * *

**Chapter 6: testing out the contract and the bell test begins.**

Naruto sighed as he had to wait for Kakashi to arrive. _'Remind me to do something about his tardy problem.' _He thought to no one in particular but Akane responded anyway,** "will do Naruto-kun. Though, I don't see why you didn't threaten those **_**disgusting **_**I****cha-Icha books of his maybe that could straighten him out." **She suggested, as she really thought that those books were degrading to women everywhere.

Naruto's head collided with the top of the table he was setting at drawing the attention of his two 'teammates' to him, "what's with you baka? Sakura asked annoyed at not only having to wait for their sensei but now for Naruto's antics. She got no reply as Naruto was berating himself, _'I'm such an idiot for not thinking about that last time.' _Akane was laughing at him for his stupidity.

Just as he was about to reply the door opened and in popped a head that was mostly covered with a mask and head band with spiked gray hair and a lazy look in the one visible eye.

Kakashi just looked at the genin that were his team.

"My first impression of you all is… I hate you. Now meet my on the roof in five minutes." He said before he disappeared in a whirl of leaves and a poof of smoke.

Naruto turned to the others, "I like him already." He said with a small smile before disappearing in poof of smoke signaling that he was a shadow clone.

When Kakashi got to the roof he was surprised to see that his blond genin was already there laying on his back staring at the sky.

"Well this is a surprise I didn't expect a genin to this fast." He said drawing a smirk from the blonde.

"I was already here Kakashi-sensei; the one you saw was just a shadow clone." He said to the Jonin who nodded in understanding. _'This is unexpected, from the academy reports I thought that he would be a hyperactive, loud mouthed brat, but this is the complete opposite of what I was led to believe about this one's behavior .And he seems to have discovered the secret of the Shadow Clone as well.'_ He thought in mild surprise at finding a completely different Naruto than what the academy reports said that he would find. This Naruto was calm, cool, and collected. A big difference then the hyperactive, loud mouth stated in the reports.

His thoughts were cut off when the door to the roof opened to show the other too on his team who looked surprised to see the two already there.

Kakashi waited for them to site on either side of their teammate before speaking "Now we can introduce ourselves."

"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura asked causing a sweat drop to go around the group.

_'And she was said to be the smartest girl in the academy?' _they all thought.

"Yes, you know your likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future." He said.

"Maybe you could go first to show use what you mean." She said to him making everyone sweat drop again.

"Alright then. My name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes…, my dislikes…; well I have a lot of hobbies, my dream for the future… never really thought about it." He said causing two of the genin to look at him questionably, and the third to just smile slightly in remembrance.

"Alright you can go next Pinky." Kakashi said pointing to Sakura whose eyebrow twitched slightly at the nickname. She calmed down to do her introduction, "My name is Sakura Haruno, my likes-" she looks at Sasuke and giggles, "my dreams for the future-" she again looks to Sasuke giggling again and blushes, "and your dislikes?" Kakashi asked fearing for the worst. "INO-PIG AND NARUTO-BAKA!" She screeched causing everyone to cover their now ringing ears.

'_Just I thought a fan girl.' _He thought with a shiver. Cutting his thoughts before they brought up bad memories he pointed to Sasuke. "Okay, duck butt's turn." He said causing Naruto to snicker, Sasuke's eyebrows to twitch and Sakura to glare at him for insulting her crush.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I have few likes, and many dislikes, and my goal is to kill a certain man." Sasuke said in his flat tone, causing Naruto, and Kakashi to sweat drop, and Sakura to think, _'he's so cool!'_ (I think I just lost ten years off my life righting that)

'_Just as I thought a brooder who is probably arrogant, thinks of nothing but himself, and is too stuck on revenge to do anything else.' _Kakashi thought to himself with a sigh.

"And last, but not least Blondie." He said pointing to Naruto who sighed before starting his introduction.

"My names Naruto Uzumaki, my likes are Ramen, training, my friends, and two certain people." He started, and heard Akane giggling to herself at the reference to Tenten and her. "My dislikes are arrogant people, hypocrites, rapists, those who would harm those precious to me, and a certain book series." He said glaring at Kakashi who shivered and thought _'I hope that he doesn't mean what I think he means.'_

* * *

'_**Ho**__**t Spring Country'**_

And at a hot spring a certain pervert felt the same shiver go down his spine, _'someone means to do my babies harm I must stop them…but first I must finish my research.' _He thought before turning back to said research (i.e. peeping on women).

* * *

'_**Ba**__**ck with Naruto'**_

Back at the academy roof Naruto was just about to finish his introduction when he felt a tingle in the back of his mind.

_'I hope Ero-Sennin isn't doing what I think he's doing.' _he thought before starting on his dream. "And my dreams for the future are to start a family with the women I love, to make my parents proud of me, and before you ask Kakashi yes I know who they are." He said jerking his head to the Hokage monument more specifically the fourths head making Kakashi's eye widen before he continued.

"And to become Hokage, not because the people will respect me, but so I can protect the village and everyone in it, because to be Hokage it means that one must not only be prepared to protect, he must be prepared to lay down his life for not only the village and civilians, but for his solders as well." He finished with a determined fire in his eyes.

His semi-speech had a few reactions Sasuke's being eyes widening and thinking, _'maybe he isn't such a dobe after all.' _Sakura's being nothing more than a simple 'humph' and Kakashi's eye widening even further, _'not only does he know who his parents are, he defiantly knows what it means to be Hokage.' _He thought really surprised now. Pulling himself together he spoke to his team. "Now that that's over meet me tomorrow at training field seven at five o'clock for your genin test." He said surprising the two who didn't know what he meant.

"But Kakashi-sensei we already had our genin tests." Sakura said in surprise.

"Actually those were to see if you had what it takes to make the rank." He said further surprising them he turned to leave but stopped at the edge of the roof before turning back to them, "oh don't eat anything your you'll puke. Ja-ne." He said disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto sighed before getting up and turning towards his teammates, "if I were you, I would eat a small breakfast and show up at seven instead of five because if today was anything to go by he'll probably be late by two hours again." He said walking to the edge of the roof and jumping to the ground and walked off.

* * *

'_**Training ground 45 ten minutes later'**_

Tenten sighed as she leaned against a tree at the training ground, _'where is he? He said that right after he got done with his team meeting that he would be here...I wonder what the surprise is though.' _ She thought with a bit of anticipation at the end. When she had met Naruto for launch that afternoon he had said that both he and Akane had a surprise for her and she had been wondering what it was all day since then.

She sighed again, this time in relief, when she saw Naruto land in front of her. "Finally I've been waiting for ten minutes." She said annoyed.

"Sorry Ten-Chan Kakashi was later than I expected." Naruto said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"Alright, but what's this surprise you said that you had for me?" she asked a little excited.

Naruto nodded bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood and began going through a set of hand signs the last looking strange to her when he was done he slammed his hand down on the ground and yelled, "SUMMONING JUTSU!" There was a poof of smoke and when it cleared it showed Akane standing in front of them. Looking around she had a confused look on her face until she saw Naruto standing beside a surprised looking Tenten.

"H-How'd I get out of the seal?" she asked shakily.

"Akane-Chan you had me sign the fox contract right?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"Yeah," she said confused. "And you're the boss of said contract aren't you?" again she nodded.

"Yes b-but I don't know how that…oh…now I get it! You're saying that since I'm the boss of the fox clan you can summon me when you want thus bypassing the seal." She said with a look of realization that slowly turned into a wide grin before it turned into a small frown. "But do you realize how dangerous that could have been? What if the seal failed when I was summoned?" She asked looking at Naruto worriedly, like he was gonna drop dead any minuet.

"Akane-Chan there's no chance of that happening because with the seal still working you and your chakra goes back there when you cancel it out. So there's no risk of the seal failing when I let you out because even with you out of it there's still some of your chakra left in it. Right now I'd say that you have about seven tails of your power as that's all I meant to summon so there's at least two tails worth of your chakra still in the seal keeping me alive. I can still summon those when we need it, but for now I'm just happy that you can come out for a bit. But I think that we came here to give Tenten her surprise didn't we?" he explained/asked still smirking to the surprised as hell Akane and Tenten.

"R-Right." Akane said trying to get over the shock of the amount of thought that Naruto put into this.

Turning to Tenten who by now had gotten over her shock and said, "Tenten I would like you to become the second summoner of the fox summoning clan." Now that really surprised Tenten, she thought that Naruto showing her that Akane could come out of the seal was the surprise, but now they're asking her to sign a contract.

"Huh?" Was all that she could get out of her mouth.

Chuckling lightly Naruto walked forward and said, "Tenten, Akane-Chan and I would like you to become a summoner of the fox clan."

Tenten snapped out of her shock and said, "I get that part, but why me?"

Naruto thought for a moment before replying, "Because it's a way that we can keep track of each other when we're on missions. I'm not pushing you to sign it, but knowing that you did would mean a lot to me, because I would know your safe." He said honestly.

"What would be the benefits?" Tenten asked curiously.

Akane took over from there, "Aside from what Naruto just told you, there would be a personal summons, who should be the first you do summon, which would be like what Gamakichi and Gamatatsu were to Naruto; basically your combination attacks and your messengers. Then there's the boss summons, that being me, will help you if you need them for battles. The reason I offered this to Naruto was so that he could use Sage Mode again seeing as we have the same thing, minus some differences, and once you turn sixteen again we'll offer you Sage training since Naruto doesn't need to, having gone through it once already."

Tenten looked to be thinking it over before she decided her answer "alright I'll sign it." And so she did though she asked why it was a different set of hand signs when they explained them and she got the same answer Naruto did. "Let's try this out now." she said biting her thumb to draw blood. After going through the hand signs she slammed her hand on the ground and yelled out, "summoning jutsu!" there was a poof of smoke and they saw a small black fox with brown eyes, and two bushy white tipped tails.

The fox looked around in confusion before its eyes landed on Akane and it bowed to her and said in a feminine voice, **"Kyuubi-sama what is the service you ask of me?"** Naruto and Tenten raised a brow at that while Akane sweat dropped, "it wasn't me who summoned you, Akira, it was one of our new summoners." Akane said to the now named Akira.

**"I see." **Was all she said before turning to the others two, **"which of you two was it who summoned me?" **Akira asked curiously. Tenten raised her hand a little shakily.

"I did." She said.

Akira looked her over before asking, **"why is it you summoned me?"**

"A couple of reasons actually. The first was to see if I actually could summon, and the second was to get my personal summons and if I heard right from Akane-Chan would be the first fox I summoned which would be you I guess." Tenten explained a little sheepish at the end, causing Akira's eyes to widen and she turned to Akane who gave an affirmative nod. At Akane's nod of confirmation Akira yipped in joy, bounded up Tenten's shoulder and started licking her cheek. Her actions caused Tenten to giggle slightly because it tickled, and Naruto and Akane to sweat drop.

"O-Okay what's that about?" Naruto asked Akane who giggled at Akira's affection towards Tenten.

"Akira-Chan has always wanted a summoner, and now that she has one I guess that she can't control herself." She said.

"How do you know Akira then, Akane-Chan?" Naruto asked. He was wondering about the relation between the two. Akane took her eye off of the duo to answer, "Akira's my little sister." She said sheepishly.

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "Well not by blood but we're close enough to be sisters." Akane said, then she saw Naruto's confused look, "remember Naruto-kun I don't have any blood relatives other than the other tailed beasts, because we were once part of another beast."

"O-Okay, but do each of the tailed beasts have genders or is it just you?" Naruto asked really curious now.

"Every tailed beast is female." Akane said smirking.

Naruto's eyes widened to comical proportions and his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it every one of the tailed beasts, the most powerful beings on the planet, were female? _'Well I guess that would explain the destruction that they can cause.' _He thought with a shiver.

"Akane-Chan?" he asked.

"Yes?" she said, seeing his scared look she smirked to herself.

"Remind me to never piss you or any of your siblings off."

"Will do Naru-kun, will do." Akane replied in a smug little voice, she turned to the other two in the group and called out, "Hey Akira-Chan stop molesting Tenten-Chan's face so we can finish talking!"

Akira stopped to glare at Akane and Tenten blushed as she walked over to them.

"Now I do believe that we are here to test out the sage mode aren't we?" Akane asked getting affirmative nods from Naruto and Tenten, and a confused look from Akira before she stuttered out **"S-Sage M-M****ode Aka-Neechan? But how could he have the Sage Mode? He hasn't had the training for it and the only others to have Sage Mode were…the…toads."** She said trailing off in realization.

Everyone just smirked before Naruto said "that's right I've had sage training from the toads even though I don't have the contract yet I can still feel the energy of the earth and Akane-Chan just so happened to tell me about the foxes had the same thing and she let both me and Tenten sign the contract."

Akane cut in here, "I'll explain how he got the training later but for now let's see the sage mode." she said before turning to Naruto who sat down in the lotus position.

"Alright, I wanted to see if I can use the Rasenshuriken as effectively as I had been able to anyway." He said closing his eyes, clearing his mind of all things and began to reach out and call upon the energy of the surrounding earth.

**"Rasenshuriken?"** Akira asked. The other two females just smirked and said that she would see.

Naruto immediately felt the nature chakra react to his call and it came to him and into his chakra network, as he balanced it out he felt a little different then the toad version. He felt his canines lengthening, his hair getting wilder and he bet that if he could look at himself from the side then he would see his whisker marks becoming darker.

He opened his eyes to see both Akane and Tenten looking at him like a fish out of water.

* * *

'_**Tenten's, Akira's and Akane's point of view'**_

When Naruto had stopped talking to meditate the changes had been almost instantaneous. He gained a dark red pigment around his eyes, his hair became wilder, and his whiskers became darker. When he opened his eyes they saw that they had changed from a cerulean blue to a blood red with slits for pupils. (Something like his initial jinchuriki state)

They just stared each in their own thoughts

'_That's what I would look like with the sage mode? Cool. Naruto-kun looks so feral right now…I wonder if… NO BAD TENTEN YOU MUST NOT THINK PERVY THOUGHTS!'_ were Tenten's thought that had suddenly turned from admiring to perverted then to scolding.

**'**_**Wow that looks so cool. I wish I had sage training too.'** _Akira thought pouting before she caught a whiff of a strange smell that seemed to be coming from both Akane and Tenten. She had smelt that smell before it was when some of the other foxes were in heat. Her eyes widened in realization yet again **_'No way, Aka-Neechan has chosen a mate? And if my nose isn't wrong and it never is Tenten has chosen him as hers too.' _**She thought with a small smirk.

'S_o that's what it looks like. I've never seen the Sage Mode of my clan but I knew it was powerful but by the feel of Naruto's chakra levels, that just skyrocketed, I didn't expect it to be this powerful. With the toads version his reserves did the same but if he were to combine those two together then there's no telling to how powerful he could become. I have defiantly picked a worthy mate…' _Akane's thoughts trailed off to the M rated area as she began to get a little hot under the collar.

* * *

'_**Normal point of view'**_

"What?" Naruto asked his voice sounding a little deeper.

Three shocked and two slightly turned on women snapped out of their scolding/realizing/perverted thoughts to see Naruto looking at them with a raise eyebrow. Blushing and looking sheepish they nodded in approval.

"It looks good Naruto-kun though I can see what you mean by differences." Tenten said to Akane who nodded, "I thought that there would be differences, but I mostly meant with the pupils and the eye and pigment coloring, not growing more feral to go with." She said.

This perked Naruto's interest, "what do you mean by that Akane-Chan?" he asked.

"Well like I explained to you before. I had said that there would be a change in the pigment and eye colors to match that of a foxes right?" she got a nod from him, "the thing is that I've never seen my clans version of Sage Mode being used by humans before. Only by the sages of the clan, I didn't expect you to become feral looking. People could mistake you for using my chakra if you were letting out killing intent." She explained.

**"What do you mean by using your chakra Aka-Neechan?"** Akira asked confused.

Akane looked a little surprised at the question, "you know I've been sealed for the last 13 years right?" she asked her sister, Akira nodded "well meat my jinchuriki." She said pointing to Naruto who waved.

**"So you're the one that she got sealed into, just let me tell you this though."** Her face started to take on a threatening look with her eyes narrowing into a glare and she bared her teeth. **"If you hurt my sister I will hunt you down and make you wish you were never born a man."** She said before her look turned into a smile. **"But if you don't, everything will be alright between us."** She said causing Naruto to shiver and nod his head fast in fear, _'even fox females are scary!' _He thought.

"Now let's try out the Rasenshuriken." He said with a maniacal grin that was mirrored by the other two and one that was sweat dropping at the looks of the others.

_**'To have that look this has got to be a good jutsu.'** _ Akira thought at seeing the looks of her sister, Tenten and Naruto .Tenten had the look because she liked anything that was shaped like a weapon and caused mass destruction and Akane because she liked things that caused mass destruction and anything that went boom. Who said that girls didn't like things like that?

Forming his favorite hand sign and forming two clones he held his hand out with one positioning its hands facing his and the other starting to jab at them it went on for a few seconds before they started to see the Rasengan form. Then it started to glow a ghostly white, growing 4 blades it took the shape of a small Shuriken then started to grow larger, while a screeching sound almost like a bell could be heard getting louder as the Rasenshuriken took shape.

'_**Such chakra! To be able to have wind manipulation of this level!**__** Even our best wind users can't do this kind of thing.**_ Just who is this guy?'Akira thought in amazement as she gazed at the jutsu.

Everyone stared at it in remembrance and in one case shock for a minute before Naruto brought his hand up and aimed for the sky shouting, "WIND STYLE: RASENSHURIKEN!" He threw it. He waited for it to get a good distance into the air before snapping his fingers.

The effect was instantaneous as the Rasenshuriken expanded becoming a quarter of a mile in diameter, when it finished growing it became a huge sphere of pure wind and chakra, the screeching sound was now way louder than before.

* * *

'_**The Hokage tower'**_

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!" the old Hokage shouted as he looked out of his window to a distant training field.

The day had started normally enough but then this had happened. He had been taking a break from his paper work and had been looking out of the window when he saw a giant Shuriken fly into the sky, then it had suddenly expanded and turned into the dome that he and probably everyone in the village could now see and hear if the slight sound of a bell that could be heard was to go by.

"Anbu!" he called for the black ops team.

"Yes Hokage-sama!" the one wearing the cat mask stated as they appeared saluting there aged leader.

"Go and investigate whatever or whoever is causing that." Hiruzen ordered pointing to the visible dome of wind in the distance.

"Yes sir!" they all said at once and left in the body flicker technique.

As he looked on at the now dispersing dome he couldn't help but think, _'whatever jutsu that is, its surly S-ranked…I hope to hell whoever the wielder is that he's on our side.'_

* * *

'_**Back with Naruto and the girls'**_

"That, was…awesome!" they all shouted as they looked at the damage to the training field.

After the S-ranked jutsu had dispersed the training ground was a complete mess there were trees ripped up, and thrown everywhere and there was a carter where the dome of wind and chakra had touched the ground.

'_I feel like I can pull of five more before I run out of sage chakra. That will defiantly come in handy.' _Naruto thought impressed as before he could only fire off about two Rasenshurikens before he lost Sage Mode but now it felt as if he had gathered enough nature chakra for six of the things._ 'Must be the increased chakra reserves.' _He decided.

'_I love this jutsu so much destruction! Wonder what would happen if he made another elemental variant to the rasengan?'_ Akane thoughts as she wondered at all the possibilities that elemental variants to the rasengan.

'_The damage caused by this is impossible to match with any other jutsu except for the tailed beast bomb. Still, even if it's been a while since I've saw it the damage it causes still amazes me.' _were Tenten's thoughts as she looked on in awe.

'_**Such a jutsu! To even be able to use it must have taken months if not years of training! I understand why Onee-Chan chose him for her mate.' **_Akira thought as she gazed in shocked amazement.

Naruto suddenly realized something.

"um, girls?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah?" They turned to him as they heard the nervousness in his voice, "I think that the whole village was able to see that." He said still nervous, causing the girl's eyes to widen in realization, "so I think that we should…RUN!" he shouted the last part as they took off at high speed.

They didn't stop running until they were two miles away from the field.

* * *

'_**The next morning **_

Naruto sighed as he walked onto training ground seven. It seemed that his and the girls escapade yesterday had stirred quite the fuss. Every ninja he saw afterwards was heading towards the area, they had been lucky to get out of the area when they did as ten seconds later it would have been too late to escape. The girls had left him and Akane to go home a couple hours after and Akane had gone back to the mindscape after getting used to being outside again.

He sighed again as he looked up to see Sasuke and Sakura sitting against a tree in the middle of the field. As soon as she had spotted him Sakura jumped up and shouted, "NARUTO-BAKA YOUR LATE!" and tried to punch him. And just like yesterday he dodged it, grabbed her arm, and pinned it behind her back. "What did I tell you about that?" Naruto asked rhetorically "and as for me being late sensei isn't here at the moment, so as long as I'm here before sensei is then I'm not late… am I Kakashi-sensei?" he finished calling out to over by the trees.

Kakashi who had been observing his genin interacting with each other was surprised when he had been called out. Snuffing out his surprise for now he walked calmly out of the trees and over to his team. "Naruto's right Sakura. But I've got to ask, how is it that you knew I was there Naruto?" he asked as he stopped in front of them.

Naruto simply smirked and replied, "a good ninja never tells his secrets." Kakashi nodded his head excepting the answer…for now.

"Very well, your test is to," he reached into his hip pouch and brought out two bells, "get these bells from me. None of you will be able to pass without one." He said.

"Um, sensei there's only two bells and there's three of us." Sakura pointed out.

"Yes then it seems that only two of you will pass then." Kakashi said surprising the two who didn't know. "Now you must come at me with the intent to kill or you won't get them, understand?" He asked. He got a nod from everyone.

"Good. Then let the test begin" He said. With that all three disappeared into the surrounding forest.

* * *

**Wow ten pages! That took a while to write, but fear not everyone I'm still going strong at this I've just been busy is all. And for those of you who say I gave Naruto Sage Mode to early let me just say that he won't be using it until after the time skip. Openly at least anyway and I have a purpose for it later in the story. And if anyone wants to see what the fox Sage Mode looks like it's the cover for this story.**

**So please review and tell me what you all think of it.**


	8. the bell test and reavelations

**Hey everyone the new chapter is here for you all**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters/jutsu. I only own this story and my original characters/techniques.**

**Now on with the story**

"..." normal speech

'…' _normal thoughts_

"…" **tailed beast/summons speech**

'…' _**tailed beast/summons thoughts**_

* * *

**Chapter 7: the bell test and revelations.**

Kakashi sighed as he stood in the middle of the training field just after he started the test. _'Well at least two of them are good at hiding.' _He thought. He could tell where Sasuke and Sakura were hiding, Sasuke being on a tree just at the beginning of the forest, and Sakura was in a bush two his left.

'_What do they teach in the academy these days? How to get killed?' _he questioned, he could clearly see Sakura's pink hair. _'I wonder were the other one is though,' _Kakashi thought, he couldn't even sense Naruto's chakra.

Naruto meanwhile was sitting in a tree a good distance away thinking about how he could possibly get his _teammates_ to work with him. He had considered just letting them fail, but knew that in order for him to correct the timeline he would have to make sure that the team actually became a team. That meant that he would have to get his friends back and if possible save Sasuke from Orochimaru.

He just had to think of how to get them to work with him at the moment. He sighed as he decided to just go with a repeat of something from the last time, _'though it won't be me getting the thousand years of death this time.' _He thought with an evil smirk.

Kakashi was a little surprised when he saw Naruto walk calmly out of the trees. Stopping just a few feet away from his sensei Naruto just stared at him and he stared right back.

Naruto sighed again as he decided to break the ice, "I know this test is about team work Kakashi-sensei." Kakashi's eye widened at Naruto's statement, he knew what the test was about? "So you figured it out." He stated.

"Yep and I know more than you think, like how your teammate Obito Uchiha gave you that Sharingan you hide behind your headband." Naruto said with a smirk. Kakashi was surprised even more than he had been the day before; first Naruto knew who his father was, now he knew his teammates were. Just who was this kid?

"H-How do you k-know all this?" He stuttered.

"Well as to how I know about my parents; I've met them...well, dad at least." Naruto said surprising Kakashi more. "And as too the Obito thing…do you honestly think that after finding out about my parents that I wouldn't research everything I could about them?" he asked deciding to start the impending fight by charging in, aiming a punch for kakashi's face.

"How could you have met them? The last I checked Minato-sensei, and Kushina died in the kyuubi's attack the night you were born." Kakashi said/asked dodging the fist and retaliating with a kick to Naruto's side that connected and sent him skidding a meter away. Coming to a halt Naruto created 4 clones that charged Kakashi with raised fists while he stayed back doing hand signs. Kakashi dodged a punch from the left, and kicked the clone in the stomach causing it to dispel, he jumped above a sweeping kick from the behind, and threw a kunai behind him as he landed dispelling the clone behind him, before punching an incoming clone dispelling it, seeing another clone coming from the front with a fist raised, he jumped back and dispelled it with a punch to the temple. Turning around he saw that the last clone had a Shuriken in its hand and was ready to throw it. Rushing in Kakashi dispelled it with a punch to the side of the face.

He was about to turn back to the original before he heard a voice calling out a jutsu from behind him, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" A giant blast of wind came surging forward. _'No way could a genin do elemental jutsu. It takes to much chakra!' _Kakashi thought in surprised as he was thrown towards a tree on the side of the field. When he hit he went up in smoke and in his place was a smashed log.

'_A substitution!' _Naruto thought in alarm before checking around him, _'if he's not to sides and not above me than that means he's…' _were his thoughts before a hand caught his foot, "Below!" shouted a muffled voice from under the ground before he was dragged down wards.

When the dust cleared it showed Kakashi standing over Naruto who was neck deep in the dirt, literally.

"Earth Style: head hunter jutsu!" Kakashi said before turning his attention to Naruto. "Now would you mind answering my question?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto smirked, "sorry sensei but I'm not the real one," he said. Kakashi's eye widened before the clone dispersed. His only thoughts were, _'how could a shadow clone make more clones?'_

* * *

'_**With the real Naruto'**_

The real Naruto had been trying to find Sasuke and Sakura, and had just found Sasuke when the clone he had fighting Kakashi dispelled, holding his head at the income of the memories he muttered, "stupid clone, revealed too much." He looked up to see that Sasuke had been watching the fight with between the clone and Kakashi with wide eyes thankfully he'd been too far away to hear what the fighters had said. Naruto just walked up and whispered, "hey Sasuke." Said person jumped slightly and turned to him.

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a glare, "what do you want dobe?"

Naruto sighed, _'this is going to be difficult.' _He thought before speaking out loud. "I thought that maybe we could set aside our differences and work together."

Sasuke just stared before turning to walk away, "you've got to be joking. As if I'd work with you." He said arrogantly.

Naruto sighed in annoyance and jumped in front of Sasuke blocking his way and said angrily, "will you just listen to what other people are saying for once in your life!" Sasuke just stared blankly at him before he said, "Fine. What is it you had in mind?"

Naruto smirked, "good, now before I tell you my plan we have to find Sakura." He said, "Why would we need her to pass this?" Sasuke asked with a raised eyebrow. Naruto just asked, "have you ever heard of a two man genin cell before?" Sasuke shook his head in the negative.

"Exactly they've all I've ever seen are the three Genin and the Jonin sensei. So this test has to be a set up, you know make us fight each other over the bells thing." Naruto explained, smirking at Sasuke's face which had become more and more surprised as he spoke.

Thinking it over Sasuke realized that what Naruto said was true, he almost slapped himself for not figuring it out before now. "Fine, let's find Sakura." He said in depression.

"I knew you'd see it my way." Naruto said with a grin.

Finding Sakura had been easy after Kakashi had done his lesson on Genjutsu (we all know what was in the Genjutsu it was the same as canon). It had been convincing her to work with then that was the problem, she had been all for helping Sasuke just not Naruto. Though in the end they did get her to agree with them.

After explaining his plan Naruto set out to be the main distraction.

* * *

'_**With Kakashi'**_

After Naruto's clone had dispelled Kakashi had been thinking over on how he could have possibly known everything that he did. Like how he knew who his parents were or how Naruto knew he had the Sharingan. Kakashi knew that Obito being his teammate was common knowledge to anyone who researched the Yondaime's students. What he didn't know however, was how Naruto knew about his parents, the Hokage had kept his heritage secret to protect him, damn it!

He also knew the Hokage had planned to reveal his heritage when he reached Chunin, and tell the village when he reached Jonin. But what was really bothering him was the fact that not only had Naruto known about them but claimed to have met his father. Something that should have been impossible.

'_How could he have met them? The last I checked, Sensei and Kushina-san were dead.' _He thought trying to rap his head over it all.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of a kunai cutting though the air. He tilted his head to the left so it would fly past him.

"So you're trying again." Kakashi said, turning to Naruto who was standing a few meters away.

"Well, if at first you don't succeed, then try again, is the saying, isn't it?" Naruto asked getting in to a fighting stance.

"True. But you still haven't answered my question." Kakashi said getting into his own stance.

Sighing to himself Naruto thought of how to explain it and finally thought of a variation of the truth "It was the night of the scroll incident." Naruto said surprising Kakashi slightly "when I had gotten home I was feeling depressed at finally knowing why I was hated. You should know what my life has been like, seeing as you were one of the Anbu that was protecting me most of the time." He said causing Kakashi to lower his gaze. What Naruto was saying was true, he had been beaten numerous times, and the only reason Kakashi and his other protectors hadn't been able to stop them was that they had been out on missions only they could do.

"Yeah, I know. But for what it's worth, sorry for not being able to stop some the beatings." Kakashi said in a depressed tone. "The ones that got through were during the times when I and the others that don't hate you were out on missions." He explained causing Naruto to smile slightly.

"Yeah I figured as much." Naruto said.

"But back the story." He said causing Kakashi to perk his head up eagerly. "I was so full of hatred that I went into the seal." Kakashi's eyes widened. "I met the Kyuubi, and it, _'sorry Akane-Chan,' _tempted me into removing the seal." Kakashi's eyes widened even further.

"I almost did, but dad stopped me." He said in remembrance, Kakashi's eyes now held confusion instead of surprise. "W-what do y-you mean he stopped you?" he asked in a disbelieving voice.

"Yeah it surprised me too when I saw him." Naruto said with a smirk. "But it turns out Dad had left the last of his and Mom's chakra in the seal incase it was ever close to breaking." He said causing Kakashi to almost faint from shock. "He told me who my mother was and the condition of how I'll meet her, but the most important thing that he told me was…that he believes in me." Naruto said, one of the happiest grins Kakashi had ever seen adorned his face.

Kakashi while surprised found himself chuckling. That is indeed what his sensei would do.

"So what was the condition for you to meet your mother?" Kakashi asked.

"When I go to fight Kyuubi for its chakra." While he had been expecting many things this was not one of them. "Huh?" was all that came out of a shocked Kakashi's mouth. "You heard me sensei." Naruto said.

"H-How can he expect you to fight the Kyuubi?" Kakashi asked.

"Honestly I don't know but ill burn that bridge when I come to it." Naruto said as if it didn't matter. Which in truth it didn't, because with Akane now out of the Genjutsu, using her chakra would so much easier than it was before.

"Now that that's over with." Naruto sighed before cupping his hands around his mouth he shouted "NOW GUYS!" as he shouted Kakashi realized that for the most part Naruto had used this as a distraction.

When Naruto had given the signal the area was immediately showered with kunai and Shuriken. Kakashi dodged most and deflected the rest.

"Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!" he heard Sasuke shout as he felt a heat on his back. He turned and saw a huge fire ball bearing down on him. _'Oh come on! Two genin that can use elemental jutsu?' _he thought as he barely dodged it. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto shouted from the opposite side of the fireball, letting lose a blast of wind that caused the fireball to not only grow but change directions as he had put more chakra into his jutsu than Sasuke had his.

'_This is why they don't teach this stuff in the academy!' _Kakashi thought inwardly crying anime tears as he substituted with a log, only to have to jump back from a volley of Shuriken from Sakura who had been waiting in the tree line. But when he had jumped back he found himself stepping on a thin line of ninja wire causing yet another wave of kunai to come from the trees. _'Where'd they get all the kunai?' _he wondered. He dodged to the right and immediately felt his legs being held down by something.

Looking down he saw that he was held down by a pair of hands coming out of the ground. That moment of distraction was all Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura needed to rush in and tie him down with ninja wire. When he had been tied down the hands that had been holding him dispelled in a poof of smoke.

'_That little copy cat' _Kakashi thought with a sweat drop when he saw his own jutsu being used against him. Seeing that their sensei couldn't move, Sakura walked up to him and pulled the bells from where they had been tied to his belt.

"Well it seems that you pass Sakura. Now who are you going to give the other bell too?" Kakashi asked.

Looking between her to teammates Sakura's inner personality was yelling at her to give it to Sasuke so they could be on the team alone, and to send Naruto back to the academy.

She sighed before throwing the bells down and said, "as much as I hate the prospect of being on a team with Naruto-baka I say that its ether we all pass or none of us pass."

Sakura's answer surprised Kakashi slightly but he looked past her to see Naruto and Sasuke nodding signally that they agreed.

"Is that your final answer?" he asked in a dark voice as thunder clouds gathered. All three nodded defiantly to say that they were sticking to their answer. "Very well then you all…pass." He said as the clouds went away.

Naruto merely smirked as the other two were shocked. "Huh?" was all that would come from their mouths.

**Queue Kakashi's speech from canon. I'm just too lazy and tired to type it**

"Now meet up here at nine so we can start our training and missions." Kakashi said. "Though, Naruto, I would like to talk to you for a moment." Kakashi said to two of his students surprise, before they walked off.

They waited for a minute for them to walk a far enough distance so that they couldn't be heard, "okay Kakashi-sensei what is it that you needed me for?" Naruto asked, though he had a feeling as to why.

Kakashi sighed and asked, "did you use all that for a distraction or were you telling the truth?"

Naruto's smirk could be seen from space, "it was both. Though I don't even know why I told you to begin with," he said and honestly it was the truth, he didn't know why he did.

Kakashi just looked at him for a moment before shaking his head, "thank you for telling me this. It means a lot to know that a part of Minato-sensei was able to meet and talk to his son, if only for a bit." He said truly happy, "however, I have to ask, how is it that your clones were able to make clones?" He asked. Normally clones didn't have enough chakra to do a high powered jutsu. Naruto's had not only done a C-Ranked wind jutsu, but made even more clones, that just wasn't possible.

Naruto just smirked, "you know I have more chakra then just about anybody in this village don't you?" Kakashi nodded. "The chakra level I have is probably more than the old man's at this point. But since the chakra is split evenly if I don't make more than three clones they themselves can make clones. Though the memories of those go to the clones that made them." He said a bit sheepishly at the end.

Kakashi's eyes were almost popping out of his head by the end of Naruto' explanation. Snapping out of his shock he heard Naruto ask something he wasn't expecting. "Sensei if I could ask you to keep the fact that I know about my parents a secret from the old man could you?" Naruto asked nervously.

Kakashi thought it over a bit before he sighed again, "I could do that, but how much do you know about your father? Do you know about his jutsus?" He asked.

Naruto thought about how much he should let Kakashi know. Deciding that a little more information couldn't hurt he replied, "Pretty much everything that was in the history books and yes I know and am able to preform the Rasengan." He said causing Kakashi's wise to widen in disbelief.

"Show me." He said a little unsure.

"Alright." Naruto said holding his hand out and formed a swirling sphere of chakra. Thankfully yesterday he and Tenten had been able to get their control up to the point that they had a pretty good level control over their massive reserves.

Kakashi's eyes were even wider than they had been before if that were possible.

"W-W-Wha? H-H-How is it that your able to use that jutsu?" He asked in a stutter.

"Do you really think that after find out the secret to the shadow clone that I wouldn't have looked up my father's jutsus and then use it to master them?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"When did you master it?" Kakashi asked.

"I started working on it the day before yesterday. But I got it down yesterday" Naruto lied. (Hey he had to come up with something.)

Naruto's answer amazed Kakashi to no end a genin a FUCKING GENIN had mastered one of the hardest A-ranked jutsus in two days. _'This kid is a genius to be able to get it down in that time frame.' _Kakashi thought in amazement.

Sighing (again) to himself he nodded "okay I can keep this a secret, but could you do one thing for me?" he asked.

"What's that" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Untie me." He said causing Naruto to sweat drop.

"Yeah I can do that." Naruto said cutting his sensei loose and with that they parted ways.

* * *

**That took a while to write up. Hope you all like the fight scenes as it was my first one.**

**I've been thinking if I should bring someone else back with them. I will be setting up a poll that will close on Thursday for you all to decide if I should. Though be warned that if the decision is yes then it will be the fem. Gaara character.**

**So please review and tell me what you think of it. **


	9. results of the bell test, and dates

**Hey everyone the decision on the poll is a staggering 87% going for the decision to bring back another character to the past. The reason I put it as fem Gaara (Gaia) is a surprise that will be revealed when she and her siblings get to Konoha.**

**To the story **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the series in question.**

* * *

'_To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all'. - Oscar Wilde_

* * *

"..." normal speech

'…' _normal thoughts_

"…" **tailed beast/summons speech**

'…' _**tailed beast/summons thoughts**_

* * *

**Chapter 8: results of the bell test, and dates. **

In the Hokage tower we find several of the leaf village's most prominent Jonin standing before their aged leader. Among them was a woman that many men would kill just to look at and many more women would kill to have her looks. She had dark hair, red eyes, and wore what could be described as bandages with her left sleeve being red. She was Kurenai Yuhi, Konoha's Genjutsu Mistress, and Ice queen of Konoha.

Another was a man with brown eyes and short black spiky hair. He had a V shaped beard with a cigarette in his mouth. He wore a green Konoha flak jacket with black pants and black shinobi sandals. He also had a sash with the kanji for 'fire'on it. The man was known as Asuma Sarutobi, son of the third Hokage.

They along with all the other Jonin had one thing in common. They had all taken a team this year. Now they were waiting for one chronically late Kakashi Hatake.

"Well we might as well begin seeing as Kakashi won't be here for at least another hour," the old Kage said. "So tell me who has passed and who has failed?" he asked. The Jonins started to list off the teams.

"Team one fail."

"Team two fail."

"Team three fail."

"Team four fail."

"Team five fail."

"Team six fail."

Kurenai was about to step up to state whether or not her team had passed or failed when there was a 'poof' sound with the swirl of leaves and a plume of smoke that signaled a Shunshin and Kakashi came into view.

There was a silence for a moment that was broken when Kakashi looked up from his book and said, "Yo."

"Right on time Kakashi, so tell us did team seven pass or not?" Hiruzen asked, a small bead of sweat forming on the back of his head.

"Team seven…pass." Kakashi said surprising many with his answer until a random Jonin spoke up,"well that should have been obvious with Uchiha-sama on the team." He said causing many to nod with him until Kakashi broke their bubble, "actually it was Naruto that figured out the purpose of the bell test. And it seems he saw through my lies about not eating and showing up early." He stated with a bit of pride in his voice.

Kakashi's statement left many stunned, Naruto Uzumaki the dead last of the academy, the one who failed the graduation exams twice, figured out the purpose of the bell test? It didn't seem possible to many of the ones there.

The Hokage though surprised was never the less proud of his surrogate grandson. "Very well, what is your assessment of team seven then?" he asked curious of how they all had done.

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts Kakashi told everyone how his team had worked. "Starting off with Naruto, at first I thought that he would be the loud mouthed brat that couldn't even use a jutsu right. But during the test, he showed that he was able to use his shadow clones to the fullest and was capable of using a C-ranked wind jutsu." He said surprising everyone there that the dobe of the academy has such skill. "But I was greatly surprised that he not only figured out the true purpose of the test but convinced the others to work with him. Naruto has the ability to be a great team leader and is the strongest on my team and, quite possibly, his whole class."

Everyone was surprised even more than they were before. The so called dobe of the academy not only figured out the real purpose of the test, but somehow managed to get his teammates-who were the least likely ones that would-to work with him, he had the ability to lead and, if what his sensei said was true, then he was the strongest not only in his team but possibly his class as well.

The Hokage was extremely proud of Naruto, but despite how proud he was, he needed to know the strength of all his future soldier's not just one of them.

"And the others?" the Sarutobi inquired. Again; Kakashi gathered his thoughts for a moment before speaking.

"Sasuke ultimately is an extremely talented genin, but he needs to learn how to work well with others." Kakashi stated making the Hokage raise his eyebrow, "how so?" he asked. "Well, while he is capable of working with others, he at first refused to work with Naruto at all. He only did so when Naruto pointed out the hints that I left for them." He informed the aged leader.

"But once he actually works with Naruto it's almost flawless." Kakashi said with a little pride in his voice at his two male genin.

"And Sakura?" The Hokage asked. At this Kakashi's attitude visibly deflated, his shoulders slumped and his head dropped a bit. The Hokage seeing this raised a brow, "something wrong Kakashi?" He asked. "No Hokage-sama, it's just that Sakura's performance…" Kakashi trailed slightly at the end trying to find the right words to say, "well, to put it nicely it was disappointing." He said surprising the others.

"Why is that? Her records from the academy said that she was ranked in the top of her class." The Hokage asked/said somewhat confused as to why Sakura's performance would be less than satisfactory.

"Then someone should go and check what exactly they're teaching then because out of all the three on my team she is the worst off." Kakashi said crossing his arms. His blatant disapproval surprised many of the Jonin in the room, though many of them secretly agreed with him.

The Hokage however just chuckled lightly, it was about time someone other than him questioned what the academy was teaching. "I'll look into it later, but for now, please, tell me how Sakura performed." Hiruzen said.

"Very well Hokage-sama." Kakashi said before he started his assessment on his female student. "As I said before, her performance was disappointing. From the very beginning she was more worried for Sasuke than she was about herself passing the test." He said making many of the Jonin there frown and have one thought, _'oh great a fan girl.' _

"I had sent a clone to observe them all before I had started fighting Naruto. It observed a Naruto clone convincing Sasuke, left after he had, and then it put Sakura in an E-ranked Genjutsu, which should have been easy enough for her to get out of, but instead she screamed and passed out alerting Naruto and Sasuke who had been searching for her to her position. After they had roused her she immediately tried hitting Naruto after he suggested working together saying and I quote 'Naruto-baka why would Sasuke-kun or I work with you?' after which, Sasuke pointed out what Naruto had to him earlier and she immediately agreed with him like a loyal puppy." Kakashi stated in slight disgust which no one could blame him for.

Fan girls were in many Jonin's opinion, a worthless batch. How they even made it in the academy in their day was a mystery to many of them, but they knew how they had made it in this day and age and that was because of the civilian council taking control of the academy curriculum in the after math of the Kyuubi attack, thus making it easier for their children to become ninja.

"Sakura didn't play that much of a roll in the end, but what she did do was mostly with kunai and Shuriken." Kakashi said, finishing his team assessment.

"Very well than, now that team seven's assessment is done, well move on to team eight." The Hokage said as Kakashi stepped back and kurenai moved forward.

"Team eight passes." Kurenai said with a smile. She went on to explain how her team passed with almost flawless teamwork and tracking skills. All that she really noted that needed work was Kiba's and Hinata's attitudes, Kiba being too brash needed to be toned down a bit, and Hinata being too shy needed a confidence boost.

As she stepped back Asuma stepped forward, "Team ten passes." He said with a wide grin. He explained how his team passed with excellent team work from years of working together when their families got together, and how they used basic Ino-Shika-Cho formations.

"Alright then teams seven, eight, and ten pass and teams one-six fail. Everyone is dismissed except for Kakashi." The age challenged Kage said.

Everyone minus Kakashi-who had a questioning look-left.

"What is it you need of me Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked in a serious voice. The Hokage sighed before he spoke, "I have a feeling that there's more to Naruto's skills than you told everyone." He said.

Kakashi was a little surprised before he sighed, "yeah, he's a lot more skilled than i led everyone to believe, but he has asked me to keep most of what he revealed to me a secret from everyone. Though I must admit, he surprised even me with how much he knows and what he's capable of." Kakashi said with no small amount of pride in his voice.

Now Hiruzen was surprised, but extremely proud at the same time. Surprised that Naruto wanted to keep secrets from him, and proud because he was becoming quite the ninja. But he understood that every ninja had to have his secrets.

He chuckled at how well Naruto was coming along. "Very well, but what can you tell me about his skills and how would you place him?" he asked.

Kakashi just smirked, "I can't tell you anything about his skills, but I what I can say is that you will be very surprised when you see him in the next Chunin exams." He said surprising the Hokage at his admittance that he would be entering them into the exams.

"But overall, I would say that what he showed me was at least high Chunin maybe low Jonin level." He said further surprising the Sarutobi. This was a newly graduated genin they were talking about here, so how on earth could he be that strong so soon after graduation? (If only they new eh?)

"A-Are you s-serious Kakashi? Even if he's had years to train he couldn't have gotten that strong." He stuttered in surprise. Kakashi just smirked again. "What was the jutsu that he recently came across Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked in an amused voice.

The Kage's eyes widened in realization. "The Shadow Clone?" he asked in amazement. Kakashi nodded, "Exactly. My guess is that he was keeping a list of jutsu that he was studying for years and since he recently got the jutsu and knew the benefits, he spent the day off that he had before team assignments to train in them all." Kakashi stated.

Now the Hokage's eyes were wide open with how Naruto used the shadow clones as only he (as far as he knew) could.

He chuckled again nodding, "very well than Kakashi you may leave. But do inform me on how your team is doing especially on how Naruto improves." He said. Kakashi nodded and snapped a salute to his leader before Shunshining out of the office.

'_**With Naruto' **_

Naruto was waiting for Tenten on a training field that they had decided to use after the incident with the Rasenshuriken. _'What were we thinking trying that? The training ground that we were using hasn't been empty since.' _And he was right it hadn't, the Anbu had roped off the area and hadn't let anyone in.

"**It wasn't my idea Naruto-kun, it was yours." **Akane said in an innocent voice making Naruto sweat drop. _'Now that's not fair Akane-Chan,' _he whined, _'you were all for the idea before we had to run for it.' _He thought to her, and he could almost feel her pouting at him causing a smirk to form on his face.

"**I could withdraw the contract and let you fend for yourself until you get the toad contract you know." **Akane said trying to get to him, and it worked like a charm. When he had heard what Akane said, Naruto had somehow brought himself into the mindscape and was now kneeling in front of her, "please, please don't do that Aka-Chan, I'll do anything to keep the ability to summon." He said and then thought of something, "besides how am I going to be able to bring you out of the seal for our date tonight?" he asked.

Now that had her wide eyed, and blushing, **"A d-date?" ** She asked.

"What? Can't I take you or Tenten out every now and then?" He asked trying to figure out why he didn't do this when the three of them first got together. The next thing he knew was that his lips were being assaulted by Akane's own; it was a bit of a surprise to him because when it came to this kind of activity Akane was usually on the shy side. He opened his mouth when he felt her tongue asking for entrance and proceeded to battle with hers. He won and though they had kissed before it was never like this and he was a bit surprised when he found that her mouth tasted like raspberry.

Akane moaned when Naruto's tongue massaged hers. Akane was in heaven she had never felt like this before, _'oh Kami, if this is what kissing feels like then I can't wait for when he's in his older body to get to the good stuff.' _Akane thought moaning again.

When the need for air became apparent to them, they pulled away from each other panting a bit. "I guess that you want to go out tonight?" Naruto asked with a knowing smirk, Akane nodded in excitement.

"**Oh yes, I would really enjoy being able to go on a date tonight Naruto-kun!" **Akane said in an equally excited voice. **"Though summon me when you get out, Ten-Chan is here." **She said sensing her fellow Naruto lover coming onto the training ground and pushing the blond to the real world.

When Naruto opened his eyes the first thing he saw was the smiling face of Tenten close to his. "Hey Ten-Chan what's up?" he asked smiling at her.

"Not much…just that I've been waiting to do this since this morning." She said before closing the gap to claim his lips in a passionate kiss. Naruto's eyes once again widened in surprise before he smirked into it and began a battle for dominance. They only stopped because of the need to breath became too much.

Pulling back just a bit he smiled even more, "how did I ever get this lucky?" he muttered mostly to himself, but Tenten still heard it. "Don't know your just lucky I guess." She said with a small grin of her own.

"**Not that I don't mind the meet and greet but I do believe that you have to ask her something Naruto." **Akane said in Naruto's head making him nod to her as he stepped back from Tenten, bit his thumb and went through the hands, slammed his hand down and in a puff of smoke Akane was standing before them with a smirk.

Turning to Naruto she smirked more, "don't you have something to ask her?" Akane asked making Tenten look at them with some confusion.

"Right." He said before walking up to Tenten and gently grasped her hands in his. "Tenten, would you do me the honor of taking you and Akane-Chan out to dinner tonight?" he asked in a low tone. Tenten's face was as red as a tomato.

'_Naruto-kun's asking me out?' _she thought in shock and embarrassment, understandable because this would be the first date she had ever gone on.

She snapped out of her thoughts she saw Naruto's face close to hers with a concerned look, "you okay Ten-Chan?" he asked his concern seeping in his voice.

"Y-Yeah I'm fine." Tenten said still blushing, "and of course you can take me out to dinner!" she said happily with a large grin.

"Good. Then he'll pick us up here at seven tonight then." Akane who had been watching from the side said, and grabbed Tenten's arm in hers and began dragging her away, said panda haired girl was too confused as to why she had grabbed her and was dragging her off to do anything about it.

"Hey what about training?" Naruto called after them.

"Yeah don't we have to train?" Tenten asked coming out of her confusion.

"Not today we don't, we have to get ready for our date tonight. I don't know about Tenten, but I could use a few more outfits than what I'm usually wearing." She said referring to the blue kimono she had on. "So we're going to spend this time shopping." She finished walking off the field Tenten still held tightly in her grasp.

Naruto just stared after them leaving until they were out of his sight. He sighed when he couldn't see them, "girls are weird." He said before heading out to do get reservations, and to shop for his own clothes.

'_**With Akane and Tenten an hour later' **_

It had taken a while to get to the nearest clothing store from the training ground they had been at. "Was it really a good idea to just leave him without letting him know where we're going?" Tenten asked looking over some of the clothes in her size that the store had to offer.

Akane who was inside the changing room trying on something that she had found smirked, "I figured that we could let him do his own shopping and to get reservations somewhere." She said, and then she poked her head out from behind the curtain. "Though I think that we should go over who else is going to be with Naru-kun."

Tenten who had looked up when Akane had spoken said "yeah I've been thinking about that too and I've got an idea on who else there should be."

"Oh? Do tell." Akane said with a raised brow, "Well you know that Naruto-kun saved Gaia from her own tailed beast right?" she asked making Akane nod "and from the look that I saw her give him when we revived her she might like him romantically, though we'd have to find away to save her from the one tails again." Tenten said with a thoughtful look at the end.

Akane looked thoughtful as well before her look turned into a grin "I think I might know who else would like him provided that we can introduce them when he goes on that mission to Takigakure (hidden waterfall village)." She said making Tenten look at her in confusion.

"Who would that be? The only person Naruto knows from that village is Shibuki. So who could you be meaning?" she asked confused making Akane's grin widen.

"Gaia isn't the only female jinchuriki." She said making Tenten eyes widen. "Taki happens to have one of their own and it just so happens that said jinchuriki is female." Akane finished causing Tenten to realize what she meant.

"So you're saying that we should get Taki's jinchuriki together with Naruto-kun?" Tenten asked curiously.

Akane nodded before her head went back into the room, "yeah and if what I've heard from Shichibi is right, she's had a similar time to what Naruto-kun's had to being a jinchuriki." She stated in a low voice in the end.

Tenten's head dipped in sadness remembering what Naruto's life had been like. If someone else's had been like that than she could see why Akane would want to get her with him. Her head shot up in realization when she thought back to what Akane said. "What do you mean by 'what I've heard form Shichibi'?" she asked confused.

Her question made Akane blink for a moment before she realized what she meant. "Oh, didn't I mention that we tailed beasts can communicate with each other?" she said popping her head out from behind the curtain again.

She saw Tenten shake her head to the negative and she sighed, "Yeah, I probably should have told you guys sooner. But since we were born from the same being we have mental connections to each other and can communicate every now and then." She said pulling back the curtain to reveal what she had chosen to wear for the night.

Seeing what Akane had one made Tenten's eyes widen before she smirked, "Akane-Chan I do believe that what you have on will wow Naru-kun tonight." She said, and then her look turned to contemplative, "now all we have to do is find something for e to wear." She said looking around the room full of kimonos.

'_**With Naruto just outside of the training field.'**_

Naruto gulped nervously as he walked up to the training field. He was wearing a formal black kimono that had a design of a red nine tailed fox sitting on the back with its tails spread out behind it. He had been worrying about how the girls would react to what he had planned for the night, he just hoped that they liked it.

But his thoughts were cut off when he spotted the two waiting for him and his eyes widened when he saw what they had on and all he could say was, "beautiful".

Tenten was wearing a purple kimono that had flower petals one it, her outfit had a small v-neck that showed just enough cleavage to make his eyes drawn to it, but not overly so. Her hair, which had been in her twin buns earlier that day, had been let down and braided into two braids that went to her mid back.

Akane had on a dark blue kimono that had a design of swans flying all over; it had a bit more of a v-neck than Tenten's, but not too much more. Her hair, which was usually down to her shoulders, was done up into a bun. He also noticed that she had Genjutsu hiding her fox features.

Overall they looked absolutely stunning.

The girls seeing Naruto staring at them smirked to each other, _'mission make Naru-kun wowed beyond belief accomplished.' _They thought as one and then blushed when they heard what he said. Though they had to admit that he looked quite good as well.

Naruto snapped out of his wowed state when Tenten waved her hand in front of his face, and he blushed when he realized that he had been staring.

"S-So should we get going?" he asked nervously. The girls looked at each other and nodded.

"Yes." Akane said with a happy smile on her face. With that they joined their arms with his and walked off the training field.

'_**Ten minutes later'**_

"Naruto-kun how did you possibly get a reservation to this place?" a surprised Tenten asked in shock.

They were standing in front of the most popular restaurant in Konoha called 'The Golden Leaf' a very big restaurant that had two floors the first mainly being a dance floor with some dining tables around it and the second was for dining alone that had a great view of the village.

Naruto just smirked and mysteriously said, "I have my ways Ten-Chan, I have my ways." And with that he led them into the restaurant and up to the reservation desk, and said, "reservation for Uzumaki." The waiter looked into his book before looking up and said, "Uzumaki reservation for three, come right this way." And led them up on to the second floor next to a window.

"Your sever will be with you momentarily." The waiter said handing them their menus as they sat and walked away.

"Okay, spill Naru-kun, how did you get reservations to this place." Akane said with narrow eyes that were mirrored by Tenten and were pointed directly at him. Naruto shivered a little before he explained, "well, you see, Akane-Chan, I happen to know the owner, and he's one of the few that don't hate me, and he set me up with the reservation." He nervously said starting to sweat a little under both his girlfriends' gazes. Akane and Tenten looked at each other a bit and then nodded their heads in acceptance.

Naruto sighed in relief when they looked at their menus, _'girls are scary.' _he thought with a sweat drop, glad that when Akane was out of the seal she didn't have a connection to his thoughts.

He looked up from his own menu when he heard the sever approaching the table, "hello may I take your order?" the cheery girl said.

"Yes I would like the Gyoza, with a side of Miso soup, and some Sencha green tea to drink." Tenten said placing her menu on the table.

"Some Tempura, with a side of fried rice, and Gyokuro tea to drink please." Akane said putting her menu down on Tenten's.

"Yakizakana, a side of Yakisoba, with Maccha tea for the drink." Naruto said handing the server all of the menus.

The server wrote their orders down and nodded with a smile never leaving her face, "very well your meals will be ready momentarily." She said and walked away.

"So Naru-kun," Akane started making him look at her. "How did you meet the owner?" she asked causing Tenten to perk up in curiosity, she was as curious as Akane was.

Naruto took a moment to remember how he met the man before speaking, "well I met Kagari-san when I was digging through the trash looking for food. He had been taking the trash out for the day and saw me. He didn't hate me so he ended up feeding and sheltering me for the night, the next morning he took me to see the Hokage. Oddly enough the next day I got my apartment. I repaid him with the occasional odd job here and there." He said in remembrance with a small smile on his face.

Akane and Tenten who had looked down at his reference to his past could only think, _'he looks like he's at peace right now.' _And it was true, Naruto's small smile and the far off look in his eyes made him look at peace with the world, _'okay I have got to meet this guy, to cause such a reaction from Naru-kun he must be a really good person.' _Akane thought, Tenten's were along the same line.

They were snapped out of their thoughts when their food and drinks arrived and were sat in front of them. "Here's your meals I hope you enjoy them." The cheery sever said before walking off.

The meal passed by with them mostly getting to know Akane better, seeing as Naruto and Tenten had known each other for years. They learned even though she was the strongest of the tailed beasts in the beginning there were some of the others that thought that she couldn't handle the position, but were quickly put in their place when she had demonstrated her power. And that the reason that the Kitsune clan had never had a summoner up till now was mostly to her being sealed for the last hundred years or so, and both Mito and Kushina had both had summoning contracts that weren't allied to them, making it near impossible for them to sign it.

What Akane learned from Tenten was that she liked every kind of weapon there was and one day hoped to have wielded them all. She also learned that Tenten hoped to one day settle down and raise a family just like Naruto did, and said blond was left a blushing mess when she said that it was him that she hoped it was with to which Akane just smirked and reminded her that she would be the one getting him first, further embarrassing him.

They knew Naruto already one having been sealed inside of him and having gone through most of his memories (not the bad ones the good ones she still doesn't know how bad it got sometimes), and the other being with him for the better part of 14 years (counting before they came back in time) so they just asked what he planned on doing this time around.

He explained what he planned on doing, for instance saving jiji, stopping Orochimaru from giving Sasuke the curse seal and hopefully saving the one that had once been his friend.

"Why would you want to save that asshole? Especially after all he's done?" Tenten asked.

"Tenten when you stop and think about it that was a Sasuke that doesn't exists yet so if I can stop him from getting the curse mark then I can stop him from defecting from the village." Naruto explained with a sigh at the beginning. Tenten realized what he meant by that and accepted his answer but not before she had her say in it.

"Okay I get that Naru-kun, but if you can't then please promise me that you'll kill him before everything gets out of hand again, I would hate to see all the hard work that we're putting into this go to waste." She asked with worry filled eyes Akane nodding in agreement.

Naruto nodded his head in acceptance before he stood up from his empty plate and held his hands out to both of them. "Now that that is done, would either of you like to dance?" he asked making them both blush but grow grins and except his invitation, "yes let's dance." They both said grasping a hand each.

Naruto smiled as he led them to the dance floor, once again thinking, _'how in the world did I get this lucky?'_

The rest of the night was filled with laughter and dancing.

* * *

**Okay that took awhile to get done, I hope that you all liked the chapter and the date; I honestly just put in what I would do, and sorry for the late update it's just that I've had family issues to deal with and haven't found the time to write.**

**The mission to wave is the next chapter, and I've decided to add one more girl to the harem as I can't seem to work it any other way, but keep in mind that this will be the absolute limit. **

**So once again please review.**


	10. The Wave mission part 1

**Hey everyone new chap for ya, hope you like it, and a review on the last gave me an idea to work around adding a new girl into the harem so thank you brood warrior. But I will still be adding another to the harem; who it is should be pretty obvious once you read it. **

**And for those that think that Naruto is acting like his cannon self that's mostly for appearances when he's in the village and for a bit of humor as well. He will be acting more mature as time goes on however just to let you all know. Also I am adding my own twist to this arc so please don't flame me about it.**

**I am also looking for a beta reader any suggestions?**

**On to the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the series if I did then it would be a lot better than it is.**

* * *

"_You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." ― Mae West_

* * *

"..." normal speech

'…' _normal thoughts_

"…" **tailed beast/summons speech**

'…' _**tailed beast/summons thoughts**_

* * *

**Chapter 9: The wave mission part 1**

The forests of Konoha were calm, and a lone butterfly was minding its own business. That is until a black mass came out of the bush and started chasing it around the clearing. Little did the creature know but it was being watched by three Genin and one Jonin, the genin there to capture it and the Jonin to just watch the show.

The sound of static was heard before a lazy sounding voice came through the radio, "report on your positions around target." It commanded.

"This is raven, I'm in the bush to the right." A voice replied.

"Cherry blossoms, I'm behind the tree from the back." A feminine voice sounded.

"Fox here, in the tree on the left." Another one said.

"Alright proceed with the mission."

With the signal to go the three genin jumped into the clearing and headed for the momentarily stunned black mass that was now revealed to be a cat with a ribbon tied to its right ear. When the cat realized what was going on it immediately jumped onto the nearest one of the now revealed three genin of team seven, which just so happened to be Sasuke and started to claw his face off.

"Ah! Get this damn cat off me!" the surprised genin shouted flailing around in pain. When Naruto saw this he almost started laughing at the hilarity, the last time he took this mission he had been the one to be scratched to hell. In his mind however Akane was laughing her ass off, **"hahaha! Now this is what I call entertainment!"**

When Sakura saw Sasuke in his current state of being mauled she screeched, "YOU DUMB CAT GET OFF MY SASUKE-KUN!" (Seriously, I felt myself losing years off my life writing that) and jumped the cat from hell just as he jumped off Sasuke to meet her in mid air. And with that a dust cloud that had fists, legs, paws, and the occasional tuff of hair or fur coming out of it formed, making Naruto, Akane, Sasuke (who was still on the ground covered in scratches), and the distantly watching Kakashi sweat drop all the while thinking one same thought, _'this is why one is to avoid getting fangirls, they're just too damn crazy!' _

Naruto seeing the condition that Sasuke was in went over to help him up, "you alright?" he asked holding out his hand for the Uchiha to take. Sasuke just looked at his hand for a moment before taking it, "yeah, I'm alright. just wish that we could have been teamed up with someone else other than her." He said pointing to the cloud, that loud hisses and shouts could now be heard from inside, making Naruto nod releasing a sigh in depression. "I know what you mean, out of all the people to have on our team it had to be a rabid fangirl." He said making Sasuke release a depressed sigh of his own.

"Though I do have an idea," Naruto started making Sasuke look at him in curiosity. "We could put these two into the underground fighting competitions. I bet we could make a killing." He said with a thoughtful expression that was mirrored by Sasuke, before they took one look at each other and burst out laughing.

Over the last month since Naruto had come back in time he had managed to get Sasuke to open up more than he had in the year that they had been a team the first time around, and he could honestly say that he had his brother in everything but blood back.

Though unknown to Naruto and known to Akane and proxy Tenten from the times that they got together and sent Naruto away so they could have some girl time (a.k.a. to plan on who else was going to be in his harem), Akane had sensed someone following them since the incident with the Rasenshuriken and the two of them had sent shadow clones to investigate whoever it was, and had been surprised that it had been a purple haired, trench coat wearing ice queen.

And from the smell that Akane got, she was heavily aroused whenever Naruto took off his shirt the few times the three of them got to train together in secret. The two female time travelers could tell that they would do good together due to them both having similar pasts, but the stalking part was getting annoying, and they wondered why Naruto hadn't picked up on it yet. So they decided that they'd wait till the time was right to confront her about why she was stalking them.

But back to the story, calming down from his laughter Naruto looked to Sasuke and asked, "should we help her, or leave her be?" Sasuke also calming down looked at the cloud that had now started to move towards them and was a little too close for comfort.

"I don't think we have a choice." Was all that he managed to say before they were both sucked into it and more fists, legs and hair were flying around the cloud, with curses being thrown around every so often.

Kakashi, who had been marveling at the fact that his two male genin had been getting along the last month or so, sweat dropped when they were sucked into the cloud of violence, and jumped down to stop them from being hurt any further than they had been.

Coughing into his hand to gather the three Genin's and the cat's attention. They stopped and he was treated to the very amusing sight of Naruto having the cat in a head lock and had his fist raised to punch said cat's head, Sakura was biting him on the arm the cat was restrained in and a foot resting just in front of the cat's chest, Sasuke had a foot raised to kick her and a hand pulling the cat's tail.

The three genin realized what they were doing and stood to attention minus Naruto who still had the cat restrained by holding it by the scruff of the neck and even then it was flailing around trying to get to him.

"Well seeing that the target is restrained, mission capture Tora the cat: complete…again" Kakashi sighed at the end.

* * *

'_**Ten minutes later'**_

"Kami I hate this cat! Why can't we kill it?" Sasuke asked now holding the cage that held the angry form of Tora the cat.

Kakashi had to admit that it was really tempting but they couldn't and he sighed before explaining it to his genin. "Because Sasuke that cat is the pet of the fire lord's wife, and seeing as the fire lord sends missions to Konoha we can't kill it for fear of losing his favor…even if it is tempting." He whispered the last part and shivered when he remembered his time as a genin with this mission…bad memories.

Naruto having heard this before just tuned it out and started talking to Akane, _'so Akane why did you have me summon you and then run off without telling me anything?' _he asked still confused as to why she acted that way a few days back.

"**Oh, um, I had just realized that I was late meeting Ten-Chan for some girl time is all." **She said sheepishly rubbing the back of her head, not that he could see it. Naruto sighed but accepted it none the less seeing as it would probably be the best that he would get out of her.

_'Okay, but something's been bothering me,' _he thought causing Akane to raise an eyebrow.

**"What?"**

_'Just that the three of us haven't been able to train together all that much since the team placements, and just how are we going to be able to train in secret again with training ground 45 still closed off. I mean we can't just go into the Forest of Death.'_ He thought to her.

"**We'll think of something Naruto-kun, and once we do, I'll start teaching you both some of my original jutsus. Since you both started making your own, both you and Tenten now have a good arsenal of well known and original techniques." **She said causing Naruto to almost trip in mid-step. It had been awhile since Akane had said that she was going to teach them some of her original moves and they were pretty damn excited to learn them.

_'What are you going to teach us? Is it really cool?' _he asked excitedly causing Akane to giggle into her hand, **"you'll see Naru-kun, but you're at the mission assignment room."** She informed him causing Naruto to jerk his head up to see that they were indeed just outside the room where they got missions.

He sighed again causing his teammates to look at him weirdly, "you okay Naruto? You look like you zoned out for a while." Kakashi asked somewhat worried for his sensei's son.

Naruto just nodded and rubbed the back of his head looking sheepish, "yeah I'm fine sensei. Just been thinking on a few techniques I'm trying to improve and I guess that I just got lost in my thoughts." He said causing Kakashi to nod and go back to his book, Sasuke to raise a brow, and Sakura to 'humph' and look away.

Kakashi, even though he nodded, couldn't help but wonder what the techniques Naruto wanted to improve were. His eyes widened in disbelief when he thought of something, _'could that technique that looked like a Shuriken have been him? Sensei had wanted to complete the Rasengan, but couldn't find a way of adding his affinity to it. If that was Naruto then he should be at Jonin level in skill and nature manipulation seeing as it was obviously made of wind. I'll have to check these guy's affinities later, so for now it's just speculation.' _He thought, keeping his eyes on Naruto, who had stepped in front of him to open the door to the mission room.

Naruto hesitated slightly when he went to open the door, _'this is it. Time to face jiji. I hope I can my act up in front of him.'_ He thought nervously. He opened the door and immediately felt his eyes burn with tears upon seeing the man who had been like a grandfather to him sitting behind his desk.

Naruto quickly composed himself as he stepped into the room and stood beside the rest of the team.

Kakashi, who had seen the way Naruto and briefly froze as he walked into the room and filed it away for later, walked up to stand next to his team, "Mission: capture Tora the cat; complete, Hokage-sama." He said lazily while his nose was buried in his book.

The old Kage sighed at Kakashi's lazy posture, but smiled at seeing his surrogate grandson and his new look. _'It seems that he's taking things seriously now. Especially since he got rid of the jump suit.'_

"Very good team seven you broke the old record of three hours and fifty minutes, and brought it to two hours and fourteen minutes. Now, Iruka," he said first to the team, and then addressed the scared Chunin beside him who snapped to attention. "Would you mind informing the client that her cat has been found…again?" he said and like Kakashi whispered at the end causing everyone in the room to sweat drop. '_Really, just how long has this cat lived?' _was the general thought everyone in the room as even the Hokage had bad memories of the capture Tora mission.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Iruka said. He got up and headed out of the room to inform the fire lords wife, and almost the instant that he left there was a loud yell of, "TORA!" and the door to the room was almost knocked off the hinges as a fat...'ahem'..._large_ woman came running into the room, snatched the cage off the table were Sasuke had set it, grabbed Tora and hugged/crushed the yowling cat into her bosom. Said cat was trying to claw her way out of its owner's overly affectionate (well she thought it was) grip, while screeching at the top of its lungs. Begging for someone to rescue it.

Seeing this the genin had varying thoughts to Tora's pain.

'_Yes squeeze, squeeze that thing.' _Were Sasuke's thoughts and he had the evil look and insane laugh to go with it.

'_Even if I hate that cat someone shouldn't be doing that.' _Naruto thought looking at Tora with sympathy. He never really liked the cat, but even he wouldn't do that to it.

'_I wonder if Sasuke-kun would like…' _do you even have to guess what was going on in Sakura's mind?

After the fire lord's wife had left the room, the Hokage addressed team seven as he went through the D-rank pile on his desk, "if you feel like you can take more missions we have, dog walking, babysitting, fence painting or-" "TORA COME BACK!" "-catching the cat again." He said with a sweat drop.

"Actually, Hokage-Sama, I believe my team is ready for a C-rank mission." Kakashi said not wanting to see his team suffer anymore and knowing that at least two of them were ready for one (and he unknowingly stopped Naruto from bribing the Hokage with the secret of defeating paper work to get it).

Sarutobi however just looked at the Jonin before he asked, "are you sure Kakashi? I know that your team has taken the required number of D-ranks, but they did graduate just under a month ago."

"Yes Hokage-Sama I believe that they are ready to have a low C-Rank at the very least," he said. Sarutobi to looked over at the team that was gathered on the side of the room.

Naruto and Sasuke were talking quietly in the corner and Sakura was staring at Sasuke.

'_Well at least two of them look ready for it. Sakura however doesn't." _He thought before nodding his head. "Alright I'll allow it but I wish to have a word with you later." He said and Kakashi nodded in understanding.

(Queue Iruka's questioning the decision to send team seven)

Sarutobi turned to Iruka again and asked, "could you send Tazuna in?" Iruka nodded and left the room and came back a moment later with an old man that smelled heavily of alcohol.

Said man looked at the now standing to attention team and snorted, "I asked for a team to protect me, not for a bunch of kids. The one with the blond hair and the one in blue look okay, but the pink one looks like something that not even a dead thing would eat." He said causing the two male members of team seven to snicker and Sakura to try to punch him but was held back by Kakashi who bent down and whispered in her ear, "you know Sakura we can't go around killing our clients; its bad for business."

When she reluctantly nodded he stood up and said to Tazuna. "Tazuna-san I am a Jonin so I'll be able to handle anything that my students can't and just so you know the boys of my team are among the most skilled in the village so there should be no worries." With Kakashi's reassurance Tazuna nodded in acceptance. "Very well, we'll leave in the morning meet at the North gate at 8 a.m. sharp." Kakashi said both to his team and Tazuna waving them out the door.

"I'll see you guys later, I've got someone to meet." Naruto said but before he could leave he was stopped by Sasuke who had his hand on his shoulder.

"Hold up Naruto" he said. The blond looked at him curiously.

"You're always saying you've got someone to meet after training, but we don't even know who this person is." Sasuke said, causing Naruto to realize what he wanted.

"And you want to meet her don't you?" He asked and Sasuke nodded.

Naruto sighed before grabbing him by the arm and Shunshining away from a confused Sakura.

* * *

'_**Back in the Hokage's office'**_

Sarutobi after making sure that the genin were gone, put up a silencing seal, before he spoke. "Care to explain why you would request a C-Rank when there is clearly a genin on your team that is not ready for one."

His question made Kakashi sigh, "I'm hoping that if she sees what the real world is like she might start to take being a shinobi seriously. Because if she doesn't then I'm seriously thinking of dropping her from my team or if not then having Guy train her for a month." He explained. Sarutobi's eyes widened when he hear Kakashi's alternative; he wouldn't send even his most hated enemy to train with Might Guy for a full month.

"Kakashi don't you think that Guy's training would be a bit much for her to take?" The aged Kage asked nervously.

Kakashi just shook his head in the negative, "if it would help get the point that this is not a game across then no." He said before his head dropped in depression. "Honestly, Hokage-Sama I've tried everything I can think of to get her out of her fangirl faze but nothings worked." He said in a depressed tone that had the old Kage's sympathy going out to him.

"I can understand that Kakashi, so how about a compromise?" He said making Kakashi's head snap up to look at him. "What I'm offering is to send a Tokubetsu Jonin with you to help out in case things don't go as planned." He said, Kakashi thought it over, on the upside he would get to have an extra person to help with the genin of his team, and possibly with any Missing Nin that came along slim as it would be (oh if only he knew). But on the down side he would have someone else to watch out for if things get tough.

Seeing as the pros outweighed the cons he nodded to the old leader in acceptance.

"Very well then, Anko Miterashi will meet you at the gate tomorrow at eight." The Hokage said making Kakashi's eyes widen at the name, he didn't really dislike her but he had heard of her tendencies both during and after missions and would rather have had someone else on the mission with them.

"A-are you sure about sending A-Anko of all people Hokage-Sama?" Kakashi shakily asked. The aged leader chuckle, "Yes Kakashi I am very sure, not only can she help get Sakura out of her fan girl stage but it seems that she has taken a particular interest in one of your students. Namely Naruto." He said with a perverted giggle at the end. Kakashi's eyes widened even farther than before with the information that he had been given.

"I don't know whether I should be jealous, or scared for his chastity." Kakashi said and the old Kage nodded his head in agreement before he sent an Anbu to inform Anko that she would be joining them on this mission.

* * *

'_**Five minutes before with Naruto and Sasuke'**_

Arriving two blocks away from where they had originally been Naruto let go of a now dazed Sasuke who was holding his head and looked like he was going to vomit.

Naruto chuckled when he saw his friend's current state. "It'll clear up in a minute," he said. When it had Sasuke looked a little ticked off, "you could have warned me you were going to do that." He said annoyed, causing Naruto to chuckled again.

"Yeah but where's the fun in that?" he asked causing Sasuke to roll his eyes in annoyance before he looked around to see where they were, "so where's this friend of yours that you said you were meeting?" he asked with a raised brow.

Naruto grinned a bit started walking, "oh, we're not meeting her here. I just wanted to get away from Sakura." His statement caused Sasuke to sigh but nod his head before he realized something "you said that the person you were meeting was a girl, so does that mean that you've got a girlfriend?" he asked with a teasing grin. Naruto didn't say anything and continued walking.

At Naruto's silence Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief, "no way! You actually have a girlfriend?" he asked in equal disbelief, Naruto sighed in defeat and turned his head towards him, "yeah I do, and if you don't mind we're trying to keep it secret until after the Chunin exams this year so please don't go blabbing it."

Sasuke nodded his head in acceptance he could understand the importance of keeping something secret, that and the glare that was being leveled at him was a good incentive as it promised a good deal of pain if he didn't keep this to himself, "I can do that." he said, as they arrived on a training field to see Tenten waiting for them.

* * *

'_**The next morning just before 8'**_

Anko Miterashi was standing in front of the north gate of Konoha. Normally she wouldn't be caught dead doing anything lower then a B-Rank, but this time she was almost too happy to except. The reason being was that she would finally get some answers from a certain blonde haired genin. Those being one, how was he so powerful? And two, How was he able to pull off a jutsu that was so powerful it was felt, heard, and seen throughout the village? She could remember what it was that she had witnessed to bring up these questions.

'_**Flashback' **_

"_That was some good dango." Anko said as she walked back to the forest of death from her lunch. She was just about to turn toward said forest when she heard a distant shout of, "summoning jutsu!" and she decided to investigate just who was training so close to her forest. _

_What she saw was two teens and a woman with red hair. She could recognize the two teens easily enough do to one of them being the jinchuriki of the village, and having seen the other helping out around the weapons shop she frequented. What she saw looked like the blond and the woman were trying to convince the girl to sign a summoning contract of some kind. _

'That's odd there aren't that many summoning contracts around, I wonder what one it is.' _Anko thought focusing on the conversation a bit more and what she heard surprised her. _'There's a fox clan? And not only that but the other person here is the Kyuubi just how did it get free? And just what the hell is Sage Mode?' _she wondered in a mixture of puzzlement and worry. _

_She watched as they convinced the panda haired girl to sign it and then proceeded to show her a strange sequence of hand seals, _'those aren't the hand signs for the jutsu. So what are they trying to pull?' _she asked herself. To her amazement when the girl tried the jutsu with the different hand signs it worked! _

_And what the girl summoned was even more of a shock to her, _'a f-fox?'_ she thought in alarm. When the small fox referred to the red head as Kyuubi-Sama she was even more alarmed as her suspicions were confirmed. _'I have to warn Hokage-sama!' _she thought turning to leave before she heard what they said about trying out sage mode and a jutsu that she had never heard of before, causing Anko's curiosity to get the better of her, _'what's the Rasenshuriken?' _she wondered to herself as she observed, the blond sit to meditate. _

'Okay whys he just…' _her thoughts trailed off when she saw the blond's appearance change from what it normally would be to being more feral. _'Okay now that's hot.'_ Anko thought as she found herself blushing a bit at his appearance. When he stood and said that he would try this Rasenshuriken thing she got really excited. _

_She however raised a brow when he summoned up a couple of shadow clowns and held out his hand to them and they started to wave their own over it, that is until she saw the jutsu taking shape and letting out a loud bell like screech. _

_All that Anko could do was stare in amazement at what she was currently seeing and the advents that followed. Needles to say she didn't get to tell the Hokage of her discovery._

'_**Flashback end'**_

The entire month since then she had been following the three around whenever she could, and found that all three were dating; she didn't know why but for some reason the thought made her somewhat jealous. She also discovered that the Kyuubi or Akane as she liked to be called could be summoned by the two teens at any time, that both of them had FOUR affinities, and that they both had enough chakra to make hundreds of shadow clones at a time. And for some strange reason whenever Naruto took off his shirt when he got to sweaty she found herself getting hot under the caller, not that she could complain seeing as he was well on his way to becoming a well-but not overly so-muscled young man.

She had often found herself drifting off in those instances thinking about what it would be like to be held in those strong arms of his and fell those chest muscles of his on her-_'Damn it girl your off track, focus!' _she thought with a blush as her previous thoughts were heading straight for the gutter and wiped a bit of drool from her chin.

Anko still hadn't gone to the Hokage about what she saw that day and didn't know why, she just felt that they were hiding their strength for a reason and left it at that.

She sighed in frustration and looked up to see the object of her frustration approaching the gate studying a scroll with a thoughtful expression on his face.

'_**With Naruto current time'**_

'_Okay so if I add this there and move that over here it should be able to work right?' _Naruto thought to his tenant/girlfriend looking at a seal that he had designed.

The propose of the seal was to make a shadow clone transfer muscle memory instead of knowledge when it dispelled (1). The only problem was that Akane-who had a very good knowledge of seals-had pointed out that what he had designed would make numerous copies of a shadow clones knowledge and overload his brain. The good thing was that he had gotten most of it right just not the part that would transfer the memory to his muscles. Naruto never being one to let an opportunity go to waste had another idea for the seal he had made (2).

But at the moment he was working on getting it right so he could use it without endangering himself, or Tenten.

"**Not quiet Naru-kun, see the symbol next to the kanji there?" **she asked, referring to an area just next to the main portion of the seal.

_'Yeah, what about it?' _Naruto asked making her role her eyes.

**"****You need to move that over to the center of the seal and replace it with that one there." **she said, producing an image of what to do and sending it to his mind's eye.

Naruto's eyes widened when he received the image Akane sent him, _'now I get it Akane-Chan! So when I move it there, adjust this, and move that there, DONE!_' he shouted the end causing Akane to smirk somewhat but rub her ringing ears. Naruto looked up when he arrived at the gate to see that he wasn't the only one there and that the only one to have scared him but made him wish for more of it was the one standing there, looking at him with a mixture of curiosity, and hunger.

He shivered when he remembered the last time he had run into her, it was both a frightening, and somehow pleasant experience that he would rather not talk about.

He yelped when he suddenly found himself lifted into the air by his caller and held directly into her face.

"U-Um, what's going on?" he asked nervously.

"I have questions for you Gaki, and you will answer them. Understand." It was more of a demand then a question but was said in a threatening voice that left no room for argument.

Naruto nodded his head faster than one could say 'Ramen' to show that he was listening. Anko was just about to open her mouth to ask what she wanted when a lazy voice interrupted."You know, Anko-san, you threatening my student is making me rethink the decision the Hokage made about you joining us on this mission."

The two of them turned their heads to see Kakashi (who had his head buried in his book), Tazuna, Sasuke and Sakura staring at them funnily.

Grinning sheepishly Anko set Naruto down, "sorry about that Kakashi, I just had a question to ask and wanted to make sure he answered It." she said scratching her cheek.

Her response made everyone present sweat drop and think, _'and you had to threaten him/me?' _

It was at this moment that Naruto realized something Kakashi said, "Kakashi-sensei what do you mean that she's going with us?" he asked. Inwardly he was panicking, _'how did this happen, this didn't happen last time!' _

Oblivious to his student's thoughts Kakashi replied as he led them all out of the gate, "Well the Hokage thought that it would be better to have some back up on this mission in case things got though." He said and did not fail to notice the flinch that Tazuna made as he finished.

Anko who hadn't failed to notice it just shrugged her shoulders and said in a bored voice, "eh it's not like I could turn it down seeing as it was a direct order from Hokage-Sama." While she said this she directed a look at the blond genin that clearly said, _'we're not done here'_.

Making said blond shiver and Akane to growl to herself thinking, _**'Sorry Ten-Chan, but if this goes on for much longer I'm going to have to confront her on my own.'**_

* * *

'_**One hour later'**_

The last hour had past fairly quickly for the group of six. Sakura had spent it ether looking at Sasuke or asking questions about wave and its military, Sasuke had listened too the answers since he was also curious, and trying not to kill a certain pinkette.

The two adult shinobi had spent it answering there questions and being on the lookout for bandits while Tazuna had been gulping down bottle after bottle of sake. And Naruto had spent it going over what had happened the last time around and how to deal with the demon brothers he knew were coming and how to possibly save Zabuza, and Haku. He looked up just as they came to the road that the demon brothers were going to ambush them and saw the puddle just a ways ahead.

'_Okay this is it, keep calm and keep focused.' _He thought as he discreetly signaled to Sasuke and the two Jonin that there was something amiss.

Sasuke showed no signs of reaction other than nodding ever so slightly at him. The Jonin just kept their eyes forward and nodded with Sasuke as they already knew having sensed it as soon as they turned on the path, _'good detection skills, though given the performance he gave on the bell test it should have been expected_.' Kakashi thought.

' _The training this Gaki does with his little girlfriends is paying off.'_ Anko thought with a growl at the girlfriends thought even though she didn't know why.

'_I guess I could test out one of the new jutsu we've made, eh Aka-Chan?' _Naruto thought with an inward smirk.

"**I think it's about time to finally see what some of them can do in a real battle, so yes you should." **She replied with a smirk of her own.

As they went past it, two people dressed in dark cloaks, and had metal claws on their hands that were connected by a long chain came out and wrapped said chain around the two Jonin of the group and pulled seemingly tearing them apart.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Sakura yelled in surprise.

"Two down" one brother Meizu said.

"Four to go" the other Gozu said as they turned to the three genin who had formed a protective formation around Tazuna and charged at them with their claws raised to strike.

Sasuke and Naruto reacted simultaneously. Sasuke through a kunai that caught the chain linking the brothers together and impacted a tree, Naruto was produced a shadow clone and they both charged at one of the brothers taking advantage of their surprised states.

The brothers reacted by disconnecting the chain so they could fight separately, and met the clone and original head on.

* * *

'_**The original's fight'**_

The real Naruto's fight was with Meizu, when they met he threw a punch aimed for the rogue's face which was promptly dodged and matched with a swipe from the claws. Naruto jumped back and started a string of hand signs and called out, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" and sent a large ball of fire towards Meizu, who was going to jump to the side to dodge but instead jumped into a punch from a clone that Naruto had made and sent just before he made the fireball.

"Damn brat" he muttered as he rubbed his chest were it had impacted, causing the now two blonds to grin cheekily at him. Now recovered he did his own hand signs causing the now charging Narutos to stop when he called out his jutsu, "Water Style: Water Wall!" and sent forth a giant wall of water at the now somewhat shocked Naruto, _'okay this defiantly didn't happen last time!' _he thought as he and the clone went through their own signs, "Wind Style: Pushing Force!" they both called out unleashing two separate and fast air currents from their mouths, that combined and made one extremely fast current of air that collided with the oncoming water wall.

When Meizu saw the now lone air current he smirked and thought _'this kid has got to be joking! That jutsu isn't as powerful as mine.'_ But what happened next surprised him. He had been expecting what looked like a C-Rank jutsu to fall to his B-Ranked one, but not only did it instead break through his but it brought his along for the ride!

'_What the hell, how is that possible? No jutsu can make another rebound onto the user!' _he thought greatly surprised, and unable to do anything as his own jutsu came back at and collided with him, and sent him straight into a tree. He was about to get up he heard a voice next his ear, "sorry pal, but you lose." Next thing he felt was a chop to the neck and his world went black.

'_**The clones fight'**_

The clone met Gozu head on and immediately dodged a punch that would have dispelled it, jumping back it decided to go with Ninjutsu, and quickly went through hand signs, "Lightning Style: Wave of inspiration!" the jutsu sent a wave of lightning at Gozu and he would have dodged had he felt something holding him down. Looking behind him he saw to his surprise another clone there.

'_The clone made a clone?' _he thought trying to break free and somehow managed to free his clawed hand with which he made one hand sign and substituted himself with the clone. He jumped away just before the jutsu hit them both. He smirked when the clone that had been holding him and the one he had switched with 'puffed' away.

Though that smirk quickly fell when he felt something grab a hold of his feet, looking down he saw a pair of hands holding him in place. He looked up when he heard a shout of, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" and his eyes widened when he saw the giant blast of wind heading for him. When it hit he was sent heading for the same tree that his brother had hit moments before.

Just before he lost consciousness he heard the same thing as his brother had and saw the clone he had been fighting dispel.

'_**Back to normal view point'**_

When the fights were over and his clone had dispelled Naruto turned back to the others, who were staring at him like he had grown a second head. "What?" he asked with a raised eye brow.

His statement caused the other two on the team to snap out of their funk.

"H-H-How is it your able to beat two enemy ninja on your own?" Sasuke asked in a surprised and stuttering voice. Naruto just looked at them funny and said, "doing that is what a lot of hard training and a hell of a lot of luck can do." The last part caused sweat drops to form on everyone's heads.

Though Sakura seemed to notice something, "oh no! What are we going to do without Kakashi and Anko-sensei" she panicked. Naruto and Sasuke shared a disbelieving look before Naruto turned to the forest, "alright you two you can come out now." He said causing Sakura and Tazuna to look at him in confusion that quickly changed to surprised relief when they saw both Kakashi and Anko come out of the forest.

Even though he knew that they were testing them, Sasuke was a little ticked that their senseis had pretended to die just to do that.

"Mind explaining why you left us to defend ourselves?" Sasuke asked in an annoyed voice.

"Well we wanted to see if you were capable of protecting the client on your own, and if you could fend off a surprise attack." Kakashi said.

"And it's clear to me that at least two of you are." Anko said.

"Though I have to wonder, where did you find that wind jutsu Naruto?" Kakashi asked, getting confused looks from two of the genin while Naruto just looked at him.

"What jutsu would that be Kakashi-sensei?" He asked causing Kakashi and everyone else to sweat drop.

"I think he means the one you used to push back that guys water jutsu with, pushing force I think it was called." Anko said causing Kakashi to nod.

Even though she had been observing him the last month when she didn't have missions, and she hadn't seen him use that jutsu at all. She wouldn't have either; as he had made it during the few times she had been out on missions and hadn't been able to spy on his training.

"I didn't get it from anywhere because I made it myself." Naruto said causing them to widen their eyes in surprise, a genin making his own jutsu was unheard of, but here they were and they had just witnessed one in action.

"Okay, well get back to this later, because I do believe that we have two Chunin level missing Nin to interrogate." Kakashi said, and Anko's face became twisted in an evil smirk that sent shivers down everyone's spine.

"Oh goody, I get some new toys to play with!" she cackled in a chilling but childish voice walking over to the two knocked out and now tied up brothers.

When she reached them she easily started to drag them to the forest, but just before she entered she turned to the others, "if you hear screams coming form over here, don't bother checking. It's just me playing with these new toys of mine." She said in the same voice as before.

And with that she walked right on into the surrounding forest, and almost immediately the screams started.

The others could only imagine what horrors she was doing to the two rouge Nin.

* * *

(1) Bet you thought i had forgotten about that. but I'm still going to use that idea it wont be often and when it is used it will mostly be for training, wouldn't want either of them using it in a fight and end up getting killed.

(2) It'll be a surprise for later.

**Original jutsu**

Wind Style: Pushing Force- a jutsu that is based off the great breakthrough, but instead of attacking purposes, this was made more for the defense. To operate one should change their chakra to that of wind inside the body and expel it at a speed that will push almost any C-Rank to mid B-Rank attack jutsu back at the opponent.

* * *

**Well hope you all like it, and sorry for the sudden ending and shortness to the clones fight but I've got a splitting headache and want to sleep it off. And I hope that you all don't mind who I've decided to add to the harem. Don't worry though she won't get with Naruto right away like Akane and Tenten, it'll be a more steady development between them. But just so it's clear this is the final one added to the harem.**

**Oh and I've posted a like to what Naruto's sage mode looks like and character bios on my profile so please check them out.**

**Again hope you like it and please review.**

**Shadow12 signing out.**


	11. The Wave mission pt 2

**Hey everyone! I've got a new chapter here for you hope you like it.**

**Sorry for the long wait but I've been working on my other stories since I've had a case of writers block and school life has started to get hectic lately. But if you haven't read my other stories then please check them out. You should be able to find them on my profile.**

**To the reviews that ask if Naruto and the group are going to be over powered then they'll make it 'seem' like they're not much more then Low-Jonin level until after the time skip. **

**To the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"_Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results."― Albert Einstein_

* * *

"..." normal speech

'…' _normal thoughts_

"…" **tailed beast/summons speech**

'…' _**tailed beast/summons thoughts**_

**Chapter 10: The Wave mission part 2**

Just after the screams started, Kakashi turned to Tazuna, and started his interrogation, "alright Tazuna-san start talking." He said in a completely serious voice one that two of the Genin had never heard him use.

Tazuna now was looking nervous, "I-I d-don't know w-what you're talking about." He said trying to play innocent.

"Don't try playing the fool Tazuna! Those two, who happen to be High C, low B-Rank missing Nin, were after you. Now when you signed on for protection you said that all it would involve was bandits and wild animals." Kakashi said glaring at the man.

Seeing that he was caught Tazuna sighed, "Alright you got me, the truth is…"

**(Queue the whole thing from anime up to the point to where they decide what to do) **

"So let me see if I got this right," Kakashi said putting his hand to his chin.

"Gato, one of the richest men in the world, has taken over your country and has been bleeding it dry." Kakashi started making Tazuna nod, "you have been building a bridge to bring the economy back to Wave while at the same time breaking Gato's hold over the country, and to prevent you from finishing this bridge he has sent missing Nin after you." He finished, Tazuna nodded again.

Just as he was about to talk again the screams stopped and Anko came out if the forest with a small frown. Seeing the rest of the group looking over to her she just sighed before she explained her findings, "well, as you've probably guessed they were hired by Gato, to go after the old man." She said causing Kakashi to nod and Tazuna to look offended by the old man comment.

"But," she continued, "they were working with someone else" she said. Kakashi raised a brow, "They're working with Zabuza Momochi and his apprentice." She finished with a frown, and getting wide eyes from the resident sensei of the team.

"Who's Zabuza Momochi?" Sasuke asked curious as to whom they were up against; his question bought him the attention of the two Jonin.

Kakashi sighed as he looked to his team, "Zabuza Momochi, is an A-Ranked missing Nin from Kirigakure" he said making the teams eyes widen, Naruto including as he had to keep up appearances.

"Now what are we going to do?" Anko asked Kakashi as technically she couldn't do or say anything on the mission as she wasn't the one in charge. Personally she would like to go and take this Gato person out, especially if what she had heard from the demon brothers about him and his methods were true.

Kakashi thought it over for a minute before he tuned to the Genin, "I think we should let them decide." He said, making Naruto and Sasuke smirk, Sakura to look worried, and Anko to look at him questionably.

"Are you sure that that is a wise thing to do Kakashi?" Anko asked, she may be a sadist but she still had morals, and one of those happened to be to not put children, Genin or not, into danger.

"Actually, it is." He said, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him in question. "While it is true that they are still green Genin, they have to start making decisions on their own as well, in case they are ever chosen to lead a mission in the future." He stated getting another raised brow from Anko, but she nodded in acceptance none the less.

"Now," Kakashi said turning to the team, "what do you all think we should do?"

Naruto looked to Sasuke when asked this and they both knew what the other was thinking, one way or another they would help the people of Wave.

Turning back to his sensei Naruto spoke up first, "well I'm defiantly saying that we go for it, because I don't know about you two," he said referring to the Jonin, "but I can't stand people who can do things like that to others, just for their own sick pleasure." He finished, Tazuna looked gratefully at him.

Kakashi turned his head to the other male on his team to see his opinion, "I'm with Naruto one this one." Sasuke said. Kakashi nodded.

Now turning his head to the female of the team, he got a positive answer from Sakura, who had at first been against the notion of going forward with the mission, but as soon as Sasuke spoke his mind had immediately changed hers.

Seeing Sakura's change in mind Anko and Kakashi both sweat dropped while the former was thinking, _'well I can see why Hokage-Sama wanted me to come along, obviously he thinks I can beat the fangirl out of her. Oh! Goody, I love breaking them.' _The beginning was thought with the sweat drop but the end was with an insane smirk that was seen by, and caused, Kakashi to rethink letting her come on this mission.

"Well than I guess we go on." Kakashi said deciding to get his mind away to the possible things Anko would do to kick Sakura's fan girl faze away and started walking.

'_**Two hours later' **_

We find everyone sitting in the boat that was taking them to the island that was wave…well almost everyone Naruto was walking along side the boat. Everything was deathly silent except for the gentle trickle of water and they couldn't see a thing from the fog that surrounded them.

Kakashi and Anko who were sitting in the back were keeping their scenes on full alert, Sasuke was staring straight ahead but if you looked closely you could see that at every half minute interval his eyes would dart around, and his ears would twitch with every sound that was made. Sakura… do you even need to guess?

Naruto was worried. True he knew when and where they were going to be attacked, but that didn't mean that Zabuza couldn't have changed the plan. He knew it was possible for that to have happened due to the demon brothers having stuck to Tiajutsu last time. This time around they had used Ninjutsu.

'_How could this happen? The only thing that they did that was the same was the Genjutsu and going after the Jonin of the team first." _He thought, unknowing that his chakra started to spike and drew the attention of the two Jonin.

"Something wrong Naruto?" Kakashi asked snapping Naruto out of his thoughts, "huh?" he asked looking over to his sensei, Kakashi stood up and got out of the boat to walk along with his sensei's son, and making the attention of everyone go to them, "your chakra started to spike, and you had a worried expression on your face, everything alright?" He asked falling into step beside him.

Naruto's eyes widened, and he quickly made up a lie, "W-well I'm just a little worried as to how we're going to deal with Zabuza is all." He said, getting a skeptical look from Anko-not that they saw it-and a nod from Kakashi.

"Don't worry about him, Anko and I will handle It." Kakashi said. Naruto though had different thoughts. _'That's not what I'm worried about sensei; I know that you both can handle him. Its whether or not he changed the plan of attack that has me worried.' _

Anko was still looking at the time traveling Genin skeptically; she knew that with his level of skill that he could beat Zabuza. _'Okay what's he playing at? It's like he knows what's going to happen.' _She thought, thinking back to some of the snippets of conversation she had overheard when she had been following them, it wasn't much, but what she had heard was that they had planned to change something and prevent a war, whatever that meant. Add the fact that he had seen the Genjutsu when the reports from the academy said that he didn't have any clue on the subject didn't help with her thoughts.

Akane was starting to get more and more suspicious of Anko, and how much she knew about their plans. _**'How much does she know? 'Sigh' Looks like I'll have to talk to her on my own, sorry Ten-Chan.' **_she thought to herself as she contemplated what to do.

Kakashi was just about to say something when they caught sight of the shore through the fog.

"We can worry about Zabuza when the time comes but for now, we wait." He said as he and Naruto stepped on to the shore and waited for everyone to get off the boat.

"Alright everyone," Kakashi stated as the boat departed back to the mainland, "we're now in enemy territory, so we will be traveling in a diamond formation around Tazuna-san. Naruto will be in the front guarding for frontal attacks, Sakura will be on the left, Sasuke you're on the right, Anko and I will bring up the rear keeping a lookout for anything that gets through your defenses." He explained getting nods from the group as they began walking towards wave again.

It was a few minutes after that Naruto heard something in the bushes and reacted by throwing a kunai at it, startling and putting everyone on the defense when he did so.

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion Naruto walked over to the bush and moved the branches out of the way, he sweat dropped when he saw that he had once again been sent on the attack by a rabbit, said rabbit was sprawled against a tree with its ears spread wide apart and had waterfall tears coming out of its wide eyes. It made quiet the comical sight.

'_Oh come on I did it again!'_ he thought. In his head he heard Akane laughing to herself as she saw the poor creature.

When the others saw it they all relaxed and sighed in relief, the two Jonin though were thinking, _'white fur? It's the middle of summer; the rabbit's fur should be brown, not white. That means that it was raised inside.' _They're faces then took on a look of concerned realization. _'It must have been used as a substitution!' _they thought as they discreetly moved to defensive positions around the team.

"NARUTO-BAKA YOU COULD HAVE KILLED THE POOR THING." Sakura shouted when she saw the bunny and she tried hitting him, key word here being 'tried',because as soon as she raised her fist Naruto had heard the sound of metal cutting through the air and pushed both her and Sasuke to the ground shouting "GET DOWN! He jumped to dodge a sword that was careening towards them.

The Jonin heard it as well as Naruto's warning and each took on side of Tazuna and pushed him down with them.

There was a big 'THUNK' as the massive sword hit and got stuck into a tree.

"Hmm. So they sent a team of brats to guard the bridge builder then?" They heard a voice muse and when they looked they saw a man-dressed in only light blue Jonin pants, he had on camouflage arm and leg warmers, the strap to his sword was across his chest which was bare. The headband that marked him as a Kiri missing Nin was strapped diagonally across his forehead, and his face was hidden from view due to the bandages he was wearing as a mask-standing on the handle of his sword.

This was Zabuza Momochi the 'Demon of the Hidden Mist', and the one hired to kill Tazuna.

"Though I'm a little surprised they sent not only 'Kakashi of the Sharingan' but 'Konoha's snake mistress' Anko Miterashi as well." He said.

Kakashi and Anko glared at the missing Nin while getting into fighting stances, "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. Guard the client." Kakashi said not taking his eyes of the enemy.

Zabuza chuckled when he heard the orders Kakashi gave his team, "do really think that it will help?" he asked as he jumped down and pulled his sword from the tree.

Kakashi shrugged, "one can hope." He said he turned to Anko, "let me handle this for now. Join in when you see an opening." Anko nodded, and with that both the males disappeared in a burst of speed.

The purple haired Jonin stood in a ready position looking for any opening she could exploit.

The three Genin stood in a diamond formation around the target Kunai ready in case the missing Nin went after them.

Watching the Jonin fight was like a blur to two of them, all that they could see was the Jonin going in and out of view.

'_So this is what a real Jonin battle is like, I can't see anything, but by the sounds, it's intense.' _Sasuke thought hearing the blows that collided and sent small shock waves out.

'_This is a ninja battle? What if Kakashi sensei can't beat him? I'm sure Sasuke-kun can though.' _Sakura thought, first in fear, then in worry, and finally imagining what would happen if the last thing were to happen. ("Seriously, why did Kishimoto have to invent her?" The author asks before he goes to a wall and bangs his head against it; trying to figure out why Kishimoto would bring the curse that is Sakura down on human kind.)

Naruto though could see what was happening through a mixture of years of experience and having his eyesight enhanced after coming back in time, _'thank you again for the enhanced senses Akane-Chan, even if they were a bitch to get used to at first, they sure help out when I need them.' _He thought to his tenant/girlfriend.

Akane giggled a little as she remembered what had happened one morning when he had woken up and his vision had been blinded by the sunlight, his sense of smell was to the point of being able to smell the garbage outside, and his hearing well…long story short it hadn't been a pleasant few days for him.

Especially when Tenten had come looking for him and found him huddled in the back room of his apartment, without any lights on, a roll of tissue paper stuffed up each nostril, and three ear plugs…in each ear. Again, not pleasant.

Back to the main happenings though. Naruto looked back to see Kakashi come to a stop in front of the group panting heavily, "I expected more out of Konoha's famous Sharingan using ninja, Kakashi." Zabuza said in a slightly disappointed voice reappearing in the same place he had been standing, hardly panting at all.  
Zabuza chuckled when he started a string of hand seals. Finishing them he held one of his hands in a tiger seal above his head and the other in front of his chest, "I guess Konoha Nin aren't as good as people say…Hidden Mist Jutsu!" He said and then exclaimed his jutsu.

The mist around them became even thicker than it had been before and it was almost impossible to see through it.

Kakashi shook his head and reached for his headband, "trust me Zabuza, you haven't seen anything yet." As he said this he pulled his headband off his eye to show a blood red eye with black tomes around the pupil.

Zabuza chuckled again, his voice coming from every direction at once, "oh so you finally reveal the Sharingan; the legendary Doujutsu of the Uchiha clan, Kakashi?" he asked, his laughing now becoming demented.

The next thing the Genin knew was that they were blasted by a pressure so great that it almost knocked two of them off their feet.

'_T-This killing intent! It's greater than Itachi's!' _Sasuke thought, _'I feel like I want to kill myself to escape it.' _He thought as he shakily raised the kunai in his hand to his throat.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted drawing his and everyone's attention. "Neither Kakashi nor Anko –sensei will let him kill any of us!" Naruto's face suddenly morphed into a devious smirk.

"Besides I think I'll clear the air around here." He said, getting confused looks from everyone.

He concentrated his chakra around his body and molded it into wind; the next thing that happened was that there was a huge gust of air, and the area was clear of the mist. Zabuza was revealed to be a few feet away from the Genin gapping at the blond in the group in shock; the same could be said for everyone else as well.

"H-how do you have enough chakra to do that?" he asked he voice reflecting his shock.

"It doesn't matter how he did it, because now you're dead." a voice said behind him and he felt a stabbing pain in his back.

Anko who had taken the chance to get behind Zabuza stabbed a kunai into his back after she had said this. Only to see that instead of blood coming from the wound there was water and Zabuza's form splashed onto the ground as nothing more than a puddle of the stuff.

'_Water clone!' _she thought in alarm jumping to the side to avoid a swipe from Zabuza's sword, and landing beside Kakashi.

'_**Konoha'**_

Tenten sighed somewhat sadly as she worked on her aim. (Not that it needed it)

'_I hope Naruto-kun and Akane-Chan are okay.'_ She thought, letting the kunai loose, it hit dead center of the target.

It had already been several hours since team seven had left, and she was concerned for her boyfriend. She knew that he could handle himself, but that did not stop the still mounting concern that she felt for him.

Just as Tenten was about to let another kunai fly she heard a pair of very loud voices shout, "MADE IT!" and both Lee and Guy came skidding into the clearing.

Guy turned to Lee with a serious expression on his face, "Lee." He said. "It's clear to me that you need to up your training. The last time we raced you were able to keep up with me. But this time you were trailing by three inches!" he exclaimed, causing his clone to gasp and salute him.

"YES GUY-SENSEI! I WILL UP MY TRAINING WIEGHTS; SO THAT MY FLAMES OF YOUTH WILL BURN AS BRIGHT AS YOURS!" Lee shouted, a bright fire burning in his eyes.

"THAT'S THE WAY TO GO LEE!"

"GUY-SENSIE!"

"LEE!"

"GUY-SENSIE!"

"LEE!"

'_Oh, no. Not that!'_ Tenten thought, quickly turning away from the now passionately hugging green duo, thankfully before the worst part could form.

Her other team mate, however was not so lucky, as he chose this time to walk into the training ground to witness, what many have come to call, 'The Sunset of Youth' Genjutsu.

Tenten turned back, after the shouts of the green duo had stopped, to see Neji curled up into a little ball, sucking his thumb and muttering, "So much youth. Make it stop mommy. MAKE IT STOP!"

She sighed shaking her head, and went back to her training dummies.

'_**Land of waves'**_

"You know, Kakashi-sensei; you didn't have to go overboard with the Sharingan." Naruto stated, looking down at the resting Jonin.

Said Jonin smiled sheepishly as he looked up at his Genin. "Yeah, but he was stronger than I thought he would be."

Naruto sighed and shook his head, '_that's what he said last time too.' _He thought and heard Akane snickering.

He looked over to Anko who was sitting in a chair beside the window, nursing a sprained ankle, and a bruised side.

The fight had gone pretty close to what it had originally, except that Anko had ended up taking a nasty hit to the side of her ribs and had sprained her ankle when she hit a tree. After that, Kakashi had done the same as he had before. He had managed to get under Zabuza's skin by using the Sharingan to make him think that he could see the future, and had blasted him with the same water jutsu as he had before. It was then that Haku, dressed in her fake Hunter Nin disguise, had put him in a death like state and taken Zabuza's 'body' away.

Naruto sighed again, things were starting to get way out of hand. "guys." He called to his teammates.

"We need to start training."

* * *

**Cut! Okay first of all sorry for the lame ending, but at the moment I'm trying to catch up on school work and work on my stories at the same time. Second I apologize for the long wait. And finally third; I am putting this story along with my one of my others on temporary hold.**

**Please review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey everyone, I'm Back!**

**Thanks for your patience, I apologize for the long wait, but like I posted in my authors note last chapter, I've been trying to catch up on some school work I've neglected and I've had a case of writers block on this story. **

**But I'm working on this story again and I'm going to, hopefully, be able to continue it without anymore writer's block. Though, it may take awhile for the chapters to be posted in some cases.**

**And I apologize if this chapter is a bit confusing; I'm trying to do several things at once. **

**To Zweig: thanks for the suggestion and I just might do that, but not with them all, I'm already deciding to up the harem number a small amount I might use some of those suggestions.**

**Thanks for the reviews everyone!**

**On to the story!**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto, or Naruto Shippuden.**

* * *

"_If we don't end war, war will end us" H.G. Wells_

* * *

**Chapter 12: Training Time and a confession: Wave Part 3**

All was silent in the early morning as the sun rose in the land of waves. The water was still, the forest animals grazed peacefully on the due covered grass and the birds rested peacefully in their trees.

It really was a true moment of…

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

…peace.

However, like all things good, the moment was ended by the sudden shout, sending the birds flying into the air, and the grazing animals running for their shelters as numerous billows of smoke filled a small clearing, leaving it filled with the white clouds.

When it cleared it revealed a massive sea of whiskered cheeked blondes. All of them standing at full attention; facing their creator.

"Alright everybody," said creator shouted. "Start with chakra control and work your way up to Nin and Tiajutsu stances. Dispel the best in every group every hour."

"Yes boss!" the clones shouted back with a solute before they started doing their various tasks.

Naruto sighed at his clones' antics, every time he gave them an order they saw fit to give him a mock solute. _'Really must they do that?' _he questioned to himself. Unfortunately someone heard it and let out an amused giggle.

"**Alright now that the clones are working on what needs to be done, summon me and we can get down to some real training." **Akane said causing Naruto's somewhat annoyed expression to lighten considerably and he nodded excitedly.

After biting his thumb and running through the required hand seals, Naruto slammed his hand down causing a column of smoke to appear and a moment later it cleared to show Akane standing there with a small grin.

"Morning Naru-kun," She greeted happily. **(A/N: okay something I think I should point out. Akane's speech will be in bold when she's in her fox form, or talking from inside the mindscape, if not either of those then it'll be in regular text.)**

"Good morning Aka-Chan." Naruto greeted with a smile. It always brightened his day to see one of his girls smiling.

"Now to training," Akane said as all traces of exuberance left her face, her expression becoming serious.

"Right," Naruto replied, his expression mirroring Akane's own.

"Now some of the jutsu I'm going to be training you with are techniques that both me and your mother worked together to create, most of them we never had the time to finish." Akane stated gaining a look of remembrance in her eyes at the mention of Kushina.

"M-My mother?" a stunned Naruto asked. He had never known that his mother had created any jutsu other than the chakra chains she had been known for.

Akane gave a nod, "keep in mind though, Naruto, we _wanted _to make several, but never had the time to finish them all. So you'll be working on theory alone for most of the training." She said grimly.

Naruto nodded sadly. He hated having to work with only theory, but hey he created most of his original techniques on instinct alone or based on what he had already known. The Rasengan's variants where prime examples of this.

"But for now and since you haven't been able to find a sword that is balanced right, you'll be learning the one that we actually were able to create." Akane reassured.

Naruto perked up at hearing this and looked up to see Akane with a look of concentration on her face, her hands were in front of her, one over the other, like she had a hold of a handle of some kind.

"This, Naruto," she said as an orange glow began to appear in and above her hands, before it burst into flames, "Is the Fire Sword." (1)

As soon as the flames appeared, they took the shape of a blade. The blade itself had a slight curve to it and seemed to spark every now and then from the tip. Inspecting the weapon more Naruto saw that beneath the hilt there was no handle; instead Akane was holding a pure flickering flame. It was a sword; more precise, a katana made entirely from fire chakra.

His eyes widened comically in shock as he viewed the weapon in Akane's hands. "H-How…wha…when…?" he stuttered in amazement raising a shaking finger to point at the flaming sword.

Akane smirked a bit at seeing this, "like I said Naruto, this is the Fire Sword." She said. "And like you can probably tell it is made entirely out of fire chakra. Kushina had a similar technique, but she used her water chakra instead of fire since that was her element. It can cut anything just like a real sword, and it can maintain battle with an actual blade made of metal, making it just as, if not better than, a real sword. Even better is that, as long as you keep a constant flow of chakra to it, it never needs to be sharpened."

Her explanation seemed to snap Naruto out of his state because he nodded. Seeing she once again had his attention Akane continued, "Now using this is not easy," she said letting the technique dissipate. "It is, in terms of human jutsu rankings, a high B-rank, and one of the hardest to learn since it requires chakra shape and nature manipulation to be in perfect sync, and is fairly chakra taxing in an extended battle."

Naruto's eyes once again widened at hearing this; he had figured as much, but hearing that it was a B-rank was a shock.

"Kinda sounds like the Rasengan." He muttered.

"Actually it was based off that." Akane said, causing Naruto to look at her with a raised brow. She sighed and explained. "Like how Minato based the Rasengan off the tailed beast bomb, Kushina and I based this off the Rasengan since it requires a high level of chakra manipulation and control. However, instead of rotating your chakra in your palm, with this you must expand your chakra and mold it into the shape of a sword." She said as her hands once again tool their sword holding positions and slight red haze of Akane's youki (demon chakra) formed.

As Akane concentrated more the haze began to condense and clear as the blade once again took shape, only this time it was pure chakra.

"Then, as it takes shape you add the wanted element to it." She said as the sword burst into flames once again. "but like I said before your chakra and nature manipulation need to be in perfect sync; you have no idea how many times this has exploded on us before we got the ratio right." She shuddered at the end.

Naruto nodded eagerly to the explanation.

"Is it only used with fire chakra or can I add any element to it?" he asked thinking about the possibility of a wind variant.

Akane nodded with a sweat drop; clearly he hadn't paid attention when she said his mother had used a water version of the sword. "As far as I know it can be used with any element, but I can only use fire so it's best we stick to that for now." She said.

Naruto nodded eagerly again. "Then let's get to work!"

'_**Three days later'**_

"Honestly dobe, why must you do this to yourself?" Sasuke asked as he dragged the semiconscious blonde back to Tazuna's house.

Naruto smirked tiredly, "well, you won't let me do this to you, teme, and I doubt the others would either, so who else can I do this to?" He joked. Sasuke smirked slightly, despite how tired Naruto ever was he could still find the energy to joke around.

"You got that right." The raven haired boy snorted as the house came into view. "What are you doing out here anyway? You look like you're putting yourself through hell."

"I just want to be prepared for when Zabuza comes after us." Naruto muttered, too exhausted to do much more.

Sasuke nodded, he could understand that, but what he couldn't understand was what the hell Naruto was doing for training. Ever since the first day Kakashi had started him on tree walking, and Anko had taken Sakura off to… 'Break the fangirl', as she liked to call it, Naruto had disappeared to do his own training. And every night he either stumbled in and passed out after dinner, or he had to be carried back, in both scenarios he looked like he had just fought off an army.

Unknown to Sasuke, his line of thought wasn't that too far from the truth. Once Naruto had gotten a decent grasp of how to use the fire sword (meaning he could use it without it shimmering out of existence or blowing up in his face) he had been practicing with it by sparing with his clones. Hence his worn out, ragged and, in this instance, rather scorched appearance. It was a sight that was becoming all too common.

As they entered the house, the boys saw everyone sitting at the kitchen table, apparently waiting for them so they could eat. Kakashi and Anko looked to be recovering nicely, seeing as Kakashi was able to walk around with a crutch, and Anko could now walk perfectly fine, although her ribs still pained her a bit.

"Oh, you're right on time," Tsunami greeted them with a smile as she finished dishing up the plates "dinners ready."

"Thanks Tsunami-san." Naruto smiled weakly at the lady of the house, trying to stand on his own but failing and falling back onto Sasuke.

"Damn it dobe!" he grunted, trying to keep his balance, causing chuckles to ring out from the adults in the room.

Dinner was severed and devoured shortly after that. Afterwards, a fully recovered Naruto leaned back in his chair, happily digesting his meal before he could get back to training. Tsunami was doing the dishes, Anko was sharing an after-dinner drink with Tazuna, Sakura was staring at Sasuke with thoughts that shall not be known, and Kakashi was reading his book. Inari, Tsunami's son, was glowered at the group.

"So how's training going?" Kakashi suddenly asked out of the blue.

"Good." Sasuke responded, "I can get about two thirds up the tree before my control starts to slip." Kakashi nodded before turning to Naruto, who nodded in return. "It's going well, been practicing a few jutsu."

"I can tell." Kakashi stated, trailing an eye over Naruto's burnt and battered form.

"Yeah." Naruto chuckled rubbing the back of his head, "I can't fully control one of them right yet." He chuckled sheepishly. Kakashi nodded to his student and went back to his book.

"Well," Naruto stood and stretched, "that was a great meal Tsunami-san. I think I'll get in another hour of training before turning in." he said turning towards the door.

"Why?" a quiet, but angry voice asked, it seemingly echoed throughout the room despite how quiet it had been. Naruto sighed; Inari was still the same as he had yet to find a reason to believe in heroes again. He knew this was coming, and as much as he wished it didn't he knew it had to be dealt with. He turned his head to view the angry child over his shoulder.

"Why what kid?"

"Why are you trying so hard?" the boy shouted slamming his hands down on the table a he glared angrily at the blonde. "All this training, it's all worthless!" the boy cried. "Gato has people who are stronger than all of you on his side; he's got an entire army on his side to stop you. They'll beat you, no matter what you try or say, the strong always beat the weak!"

Naruto, having heard this once before looked at the boy for a moment before turning back to the door. "Speak for yourself brat." He stated calmly. "I'm not the type to give up without a fight."

"Shut up already!" Inari shouted, "Listening to you makes me sick! You know nothing of this country; you know nothing about what we've gone through, what we've had to do to survive. You know nothing about what it's like to be treated like dirt, to suffer!"

"Inari!" Tsunami exclaimed, getting up to chastise the boy, but was stopped when she and everyone else felt an unreal amount of killing intent crash into the room. Their attention was drawn to Naruto as he turned; his head was down and his hair was shadowing his eyes.

'_That was the wrong thing to say.' _Kakashi thought, even he was starting to sweat by the amount of KI Naruto was let off.

"I know nothing of suffering?" Naruto asked lowly.

He was met with silence.

"I know noth**ing of suffering?" **he asked again as his voice became demonic and his head rose to show his eyes had become blood red, his k-nines had lengthened to the point they poked out from his upper lip and his whiskers had become darker.

Suddenly Naruto disappeared in a blur of speed and reappeared lifting Inari by the collar of his shirt so he could look him in the eye.

**"Have you ever been hunted on the day of your birth? Have you ever been beaten, kicked, stabbed or burned? Have you ever had to dig through garbage to simply EAT!?" **Naruto asked as he glared into the eyes of the scared child who shook his head in fear.

"**WELL, I HAVE!" **Naruto shouted causing those who didn't know of his condition to gasp in shock. **"And all because of something happened on the day I was born, something I had no decision in. You think you've had it bad? You at least have a family, something I've never known! So stop sitting around here on your knees and get up on your feet and fight to protect them! And get something through your head kid; there will always be someone who's had it. Worse. Then. You!" **with that said, Naruto dropped the shaking child from his hold and walked to the door.

"**I'm going out to train Sensei." **Naruto said as he opened the door, **"don't look for me." **And with that he walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

The house was silent for a while after Naruto's departure, several of the people didn't dare to speak as the argument rang though their heads, only Kakashi and Anko were not, instead they were looking down in shame, they had been part of the Anbu squad assigned to protect him, but yet they had still failed to do that.

"W-Was what he said true?" Tsunami asked softly, scared of the answer.

Kakashi looked up at the women, before he sighed shook his head. "No." he muttered, causing the others to look at him confused, "if anything…that was the sugar coated version."

Gasps rang throughout the room. "B-But why would your village do that to a child?" Tsunami shakily asked.

Sighing again Kakashi started in to the story of Naruto's life. "You see, the day Naruto was born a great beast attacked the village. You heard about the nine tailed fox?" he asked getting nods from the older two of the civilians, "well the forth Hokage managed to defeat it, but it cost him his life. Naruto being born on that day is a reminder of what the village lost. Somehow the villagers took his birth as a sign of him being the fox reborn in the body of a child." He said gaining more gasps, this time from his team as well.

"You see, Naruto lost both his parents to the fox that night. He grew up an orphan and as a result grew up with very few people who actually cared for him amongst all the hatred the rest of the village had for him. He was kicked out of the orphanage at the age of six; he had to live on the streets for a few months before the Hokage found him and gave him an apartment. But he had already been beaten several times by then, the Hokage actually found him while he was getting beaten. What Hokage-sama did to the civilians and the few ninja in the group," Kakashi shuddered. That was the only time he had seen Sarutobi pissed off and he hoped to never see it again. "I'm going to spare you the details, but it was brutal. I, having been guarding the Hokage at the time, was assigned to take Naruto to the hospital." Kakashi looked down as he remembered the night.

"I had never seen someone with so many injuries before. He had most of his ribs broken, a shattered knee cap, a punctured lung, and a knife stabbed through his kidneys, how he managed to stay awake through it all, I have no idea. He wasn't expected to make it through the night due to internal bleeding." He looked up from his lap to see everyone had horrified looks. "Somehow though, Naruto managed to pull through and make a full recovery. That day, when he woke up was the first and last time I had ever seen Naruto cry. I know he used to cry a lot about what his life was like, but that was the only time I've ever saw him do so, but since then he has never shed a single tear. I think he realized crying over his life would'nt accomplish anything, and decided to do something about it." He turned his gaze to in Inari, "that was when he was no older than you Inari." He said causing the boys to stare at him in shock. "Trust me when I say this, Naruto knows better than anyone else what it means to suffer." He said. "Keep in mind Inari, despite the harsh words Naruto said, they're most likely what he told himself." The end of Kakashi's tale was punctuated when loud explosions started sounding some distance away.

Despite everyone's surprise at the ground breaking noises they didn't move, too lost in thought about what had been revealed.

* * *

"Stupid brat, thinks nobody else knows what pain is." Naruto grumbled, angrily swinging the Fire Sword at a tree and unleashing a crescent shaped wave of fire that cut and burned it way through the tree. Said tree fell to the ground covered in flames.

"Compared to me he's had it easy" he muttered, continuing to unleash destruction upon the forest.

He knew that Inari would say what he did, having gone through it before, but it still brought up memories about what his life had been like before he became a ninja. And with the memories came the suppressed anger and hatred he had for the village. It hurt to remember what he's tried to forget.

"Why?" he asked himself falling to his knees and staring at the ground. Why was he hated? Why had his father cursed him to a life of hell? Why couldn't the memories have stayed buried like they belonged?

"**I'm sorry." **He heard Akane apologize in his head.

"_What? Why?" _He asked back confused. Why would Akane be apologizing to him?

"**I'm sorry for what you had to go through because of m-me,"** Akane sniffled. Naruto's eyes widened; she was…crying?

Suddenly Akane felt herself wrapped into a pair of strong arms as Naruto appeared in the mindscape.

"Aka-Chan, there's nothing to be sorry about." Naruto said softly, all anger disappearing from his form. "It wasn't your f-"

"Yes it was, Naruto!" she shouted as she pulled back and glared at him through puffy eyes, tears streaming down her face. "I may not have been myself, but I can still remember that night!" She yelled, "I can still remember feeling the glee running through me as I killed those shinobi, the feeling of their blood on my hands, the feeling of ending so many lives. I can still remember that night like it was yesterday, and the scary part of it is...I loved it!" She whispered staring at her shaking hands.

"How can you be with me after all I've done, Naruto? How can you be with a killer, someone who took pleasure at what they've done? How can you be with a m-"

'SLAP'

Akane stood in shock holding her stinging cheek as Naruto withdrew his hand, "don't you dare call yourself that!" he said with a fierce glare.

"Don't you dare call yourself something you aren't!" he whispered. "Akane, I am not with a killer." Akane's eyes began to water again. "I'm with a beautiful, kind and caring woman. When I'm down you and Tenten pick me up; you two care about me and I care about you." he glared into her eyes. "So tell me Akane. Would a monster do that? Would a monster care about others? Would I fall in love with a monster?"

"w-wha-" Akane was cut off when Naruto's lips crashed against hers in a passionate kiss.

Pulling back Naruto looked directly into the red eyes of Akane, "I told you when we met Akane, I don't care what you did in the attack; you were in a Genjutsu! Madara-teme was controlling you. It wasn't you who enjoyed killing those people, it was Madara. You felt Madara's glee, you felt Madara's hate for the village." He said seriously.

"You are not a monster Akane. Sure you may be the Kyuubi, but you are not a monster, you are Akane of the fox clan, you are kind, caring, and one of the women I love."Naruto said, resting his forehead against hers. Akane's eyes widened when she heard the last part, "W-What did you just say?" she asked softly, hoping that she hadn't misheard him. Sure they had been together for over a month now, but never had they actually said those three words.

Naruto smiled softly to the women in his arms, "you heard me Aka-hime; I love you."

Akane's eyes widened again and began to water as she heard those words, words she was dying to hear.

Naruto, seeing her eyes filling with tears, began to get worried he had said something wrong. "Aka-mmph!" he was cut off as Akane's lips crashed into his. He was surprised for a brief moment before he returned it.

Pulling back for some air Akane smiled at Naruto, tears of joy running down her face. "Thank you Naruto-kun." She whispered. "I love you too."

Naruto's own eyes widened before he smiled back at her. "Please don't blame yourself for something that wasn't your fault, Hime." He said bringning her into an embrace.

Sniffling softly Akane nodded into his shirt, "I'll try not to." She whispered closing her eyes and listening to Naruto's heart.

They sat that way for several hours, feeling as if a heavy burden had lifted from their shoulders.

It was in this position that they found peace within themselves, they slowly drifted to sleep, holding each other in their arms.

* * *

**(1): Basically it's like it says; a sword made from fire chakra. With a few details that will come later.**

* * *

**CUT!**

**Okay sorry if the end was a bit rushed and the chapter is a little short, but I've been trying to work on some online school work and two of my stories at the same time.**

**And I apologize if the scene at the end is a little confusing. Basically Naruto was venting some ager from Inari's statement and Akane had just found out what Naruto had to go through in his life, because like I stated in an earlier chapter she never went through the memories of Naruto's mistreatment, and was blaming herself for it. That led to them confessing their feelings. Don't worry though Tenten will get her chance in time. Truthfully I just put in what sounded right in my mind, if it can use some improvements I'm really looking for beta reader and if possible a co-author, to help.**

**And the meeting with Haku will be next chapter.**

**Also about the Fire Sword it's an idea that popped into my head awhile ago, back when I was writing the first chapter of this story actually, I got the idea from the Rasenshuriken and figured if Naruto could do it with a swirling ball of chakra, then what could he do with unmoving chakra combined with fire and the other elements? Akane showing it to him was just a starter for him to get the basic concept down for it before he starts experimenting with the other elements.**

**Please review.**


	13. A meeting

**Hey** **everyone, new chapter for ya! Thank you for the reviews, the number isn't all that much compared to the reviews I got before this went on hold, but still thank you.**

**Also I've decided to add two more girls to the harem, but this is the final addition, so no more asking! I will post it in the closing author's note at the end of this chapter. Now I originally intended to get this one posted on the fifth, but it was my birthday and my parents threw a party with some friends so I didn't have time to get it out then.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! Even though I wish I did (sighs sadly).**

* * *

**Chapter 13: A Meeting and a Letter.**

A young woman walked through the forest of wave, humming a soft tune to herself as she walked along a path. She wore a dark brown choker around her neck and a simple white obi (or is it a sash?) tied in a bow around her waist, holding her pink kimono closed, and a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps. She had fair, if slightly pale skin, dark black hair that was worn down her back, large, dark brown eyes, and a narrow, but still pretty face.

This was Haku Yuki, Zabuza's apprentice, tool and weapon, last of the ice blood line, and unknown heiress to the Yuki clan. Currently she was looking for herbs to help heal her master.

Speaking of the man, Zabuza was recovering at an amazing pace, even for one such as him. Most people would still be bed ridden and unable to move for another week or two after the injuries he received, both from his battle with the Konoha Jonin and Haku's use of pressure points to simulate a false death state. She didn't know if it was his strong constitution or the fact that she had used the same method to knock him out before, but Zabuza was recovering and already moving around and would be back to full strength with a few days at the latest. She was just out gathering herbs to help speed up that process before they made their move on the bridge builder and the Konoha team.

She sighed to herself as her thoughts turned to their assignment. Dooming an entire country to the hands of a crime boss; was by far the most distasteful job they had been forced to take. Of course Haku was not above making her distaste known and neither was Zabuza himself, but they needed the funds more than their personal honor.

Truthfully Haku wished that they could stop the life of constant traveling, of being forced to work for criminals and scoundrels to survive. She had often wondered what it would be like to live in one of the major hidden villages and seeking asylum; Haku herself could do that easily enough, having never been a recorded nuke Nin in the first place. Zabuza one the other hand? Not likely since his presence made that near impossible for him, his attempt at assassinating the Mizukage and his bloody history as a shinobi made villages less than willing to accept him into their ranks, so they were forced to keep running. Haku was no fool though, she knew they wouldn't be able to outrun the hunter ninja forever; they would eventually be caught and most likely executed on the spot.

The thought of losing the person who had become her father figure greatly saddened the young ice user. She knew Zabuza was the closest thing to a family she had, but due to being his weapon she couldn't show it, she was a tool first and foremost and her loyalty was absolute, nothing short of a miracle would change that.

Her train of thought was suddenly broken as she entered a clearing she knew housed most of the herbs she needed. She gapped in shock at what she saw. Several of the trees on the edge of the clearing bore long, deep gashes. Others looked as though they had been damaged by fire as they had large chunks of their bark burnt off and fallen ash at the base of the trunks, while several more looked as if they had been cut cleanly through and had fallen to the ground, where they'd been left to burn. The ground around the clearing was devoid of life, all the grass had been burnt to a crisp and the air was heavy with the smell of smoke; clearly she wouldn't be getting any usable herbs from here.

And lying there, in the middle of all the destruction was a boy dressed all in black, sleeping soundly where he lay.

Haku's eyes narrowed slightly as she recognized him as a member of the Konoha team protecting their target; more over from what she had saw the boy was considerably strong, not very many people could have blown away Zabuza's mist like he had after all. He was a threat to her and her master, a threat that would have to be taken care of. Slowly she approached the blonde, her hand reaching for his neck.

Haku bit back a gasp of shock as one of the boy's hands shot out and grabbed on to her wrist. "I wouldn't try to wake a sleeping ninja Miss." the blonde stated with a smirk as his eyes opened.

Haku stared at the blonde for a moment before grinning sheepishly, "right, sorry mister. But you do know that you'll catch a cold if you sleep out here, don't you?" She asked kindly.

Naruto stood up stretching, before looking back to Haku with a smile of his own, "no need to worry about that. I've never been sick a day in my life." He responded. "The names Naruto Uzumaki by the way. What's yours?" he asked, faking interest in something he already knew.

"It's Haku. Nice to meet you Naruto-san." Haku replied with a small smile.

Naruto smiled back, before a gust of wind blew and his nose caught a sent that made him stiffen. _'N-No way!' _he thought. _'Haku's a girl!? But she told me she was a boy!' _meanwhile Akane was laughing hysterically in the mindscape.

"**Hahahaha! Oh this is rich!" **she said between laughs. **"At least now you know that you've never had those thoughts about a boy, because he was she all along!" **she gasped before falling into another fit of giggles.

Naruto mentally shivered; even though he had been told Haku was male he had always been confused about her true gender, and now his suspicions were proven right. _'Thank Kami for that!' _he thought back, truly thankful.

Shaking his head clear of his thoughts Naruto saw that Haku was still standing in the same spot. "S-same here, but what are you doing out here this early?" he asked, last time he hadn't been that observant of the time, but now he could see that it was fairly early given that the sky had only just started to brighten, it was five maybe six in the morning.

"I'm gathering herbs." Haku responded honestly, showing him a basket half full with various plants.

"Herbs?" Naruto asked playing along.

"Yes, there are several species in the area that are perfect for helping people heal and recuperate from injuries and diseases." Haku answered with a nod before looking around the destroyed clearing with a frown.

"Unfortunately though, it seems that I will be unable to find what I need here." She said refocusing her attention on the blonde.

Naruto chuckled sheepishly while he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, sorry about that."

Haku nodded with a small giggle, something that sounded really cute to Naruto. "But what about you, Naruto-san? What are you doing sleeping out here, in the middle of a forest?"

"Oh, I was training, I guess I must have over done it and fallen asleep." The blonde half lied. He had technically been training, but stopped midway to comfort Akane when she was upset. "So, um, would you like any help in finding those herbs?" he offered. "As an apology for destroying the ones here?"

"That's very kind of you." Haku gratefully responded after a moment of thought.

The two set off into the forest, chatting about various topics while stopping occasionally to pick up an herb that Haku said she needed. Pretty soon they found themselves on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The sun was just getting over the horizon.

"You sure like to get an early start to the morning don't you Haku-Chan?" Naruto stated offhand, carefully picking an herb and putting it into the basket.

Haku blushed slightly at the addition of the honorific to her name before she replied, "I like it in the morning, its peaceful at this time; it makes me feel that all is right in the world." She said softly staring at the rising sun with a small smile. Naruto nodded to her, the girl had a point, the forest was quiet peaceful in the early morning. But the rising sun wasn't what he found himself looking at; it was Haku's face. The way she smiled, as if nothing was wrong; it made his heart speed up and Naruto found himself lost in her beauty.

Akane smiled as she watched through the seal, from what she could see both of them would look good together, not to mention if what she saw from Naruto's memories was right, Haku had had a pretty tough life before she met Zabuza. She nodded to herself; yes Haku would fit quiet well with their little group.

"So you said you're a ninja Naruto?" Naruto snapped out of his trance when Haku asked this to see her still staring at the horizon.

He nodded as he turned his attention back to the ocean. "Yeah, I'm a ninja of Konoha." He said flicking his head band.

"I see." Haku said turning her head so she could look at the boy beside her. "The life of a ninja must be pretty exciting." She stated absently. "But isn't it dangerous?"

Naruto chuckled, "sometimes." He said. "But that's why I train. So I can become stronger, not only so that it won't be dangerous, but so I can protect those I care about." He said gaining a far off look as he remembered all he was fighting for.

'_Never again will I watch as those I care for are forced to die because of my mistakes. Never again will I sit back and watch as they are forced to sacrifice themselves because of me. This time around; I'll be the one protecting them!' _he thought, remembering the war and all those who had been forced to give up their lives because of him.

"Aren't you strong enough already?" Haku asked, amazed that he shared her belief about true strength. "You did a lot of damage to the clearing back there."

Naruto shook his head, "that's not enough." He stated. "I can't stop training until I can beat everything that can harm those precious to me!" He exclaimed pounding his fist into his open palm, a determined fire burning in his eyes.

Haku was amazed at what she just heard. Here she was standing next to a young man who would stop at nothing to become strong so that he could protect those that he loves, someone who shared on her beliefs and knew what it meant to be strong. She found herself smiling at him as a faint blush dusted her cheeks.

"Then you shall be truly strong Naruto-kun." She said, leaning down and picking up the basket before turning to walk away. "I however need to get these herbs to a friend of mine. Hopefully we will meet again." She said walking away.

Naruto smirked, and turned to watch her leave, "I would count on it…hunter-chan." He said causing the girl to freeze in her tracks.

"H-How?" Haku asked, shocked and slightly scared that he had found out.

Naruto's smirk widened, "it wasn't really all that difficult to figure out really." He said walking up to stand in front of her. "My sense of smell is pretty strong and I can recognize a person by the feel of their chakra." He explained. "The hunter Nin who rescued Zabuza had a particular scent, similar to an ocean breeze and their chakra felt cold. Both your scent and chakra are the same as the hunter Nin's." (1)

Haku nodded shakily, discreetly creating a pair of senbon from her chakra. "Then what will you do, now that you know?" she asked, preparing herself for a fight.

Naruto chuckled and raised his hands in defense, "I don't want to fight you Haku-Chan. But you can pass a message on to Zabuza from me." He said.

"Message?" Haku asked, letting the senbon dissipate, now that she knew there was no threat to her person.

Naruto nodded and fished a scroll from his pocket. "Give Zabuza this and tell him that you both can come to Konoha with my team. I'm pretty tight with the Hokage so I can convince him to let you guys live in the village." He said before making a hand sign and disappearing in a gust of wind.

Haku stared at the scroll in her hands in bewilderment. Why would Naruto not try to capture and interrogate her? Why would he just let her go free? Why not get her to lead him to Zabuza so he could eliminate him so his client would no longer be threatened?

Haku couldn't wrap her mind around it, until a voice rang out in her head, _"you are precious to him child. He would sooner die than hurt one of his precious people." _It said, causing her to blush as she set the scroll in the basket and walked off in to the forest.

'_Naruto-kun…maybe, just maybe, you are the miracle I've been waiting for…thank you.'_

* * *

"You did WHAT!?" The entirety of team seven screamed at the blonde in front of them.

Naruto chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. After shunshining back to Tazuna's place he had proceeded in and explained what had transpired between him and Haku and what he had offered them. Needless to say; they were not happy.

"You heard me." Naruto said.

"So let me get this straight," Kakashi said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You meet Zabuza's apprentice while she was out gathering herbs to heal him."

"That's right." Naruto nodded.

"And instead of capturing her for interrogation you helped her gather said herbs."

"Yep."

"And when the said herbs where gathered you gave her a message to give to Zabuza, offering them asylum in Konoha?"

"Yes."

"Are you insane!?" Kakashi finally exploded, throwing his arms into the air.

"Maybe," Naruto shrugged with a goofy grin. It was possible with all the crazy things he had done in his life.

Kakashi stared at his blonde student for a long while before he slumped down in his chair, "alright then. I'll trust your decision." He said.

"What?" Anko asked staring at her superior in shock, everyone else was too stunned at Kakashi's decision to say anything. "B-But Ka-" Kakashi stopped her there.

"But nothing, Anko," He said turning to her with a serious look in his lone eye, "I'll admit doing this is a risk, but the pros far outweigh the cons. If Naruto is able to pull this off then not only will the village gain two more shinobi, but it'll also gain a new blood line." He said, "And if this doesn't work, then we take them out before they pose a greater threat, simple as that. (2)" Kakashi explained before turning his gaze to Naruto. "However; if they do decide to go with us, Naruto, you will be held responsible for their actions, you got it?"

Naruto nodded in understanding. "I understand sensei." He said before standing from his chair and walking out the door to get some more training in. Truthfully he was a little nervous about what Zabuza's decision would be; if he didn't join them then they would be forced to take him and Haku out. If they did and later betrayed them then he would be forced to take the punishment. Naruto shook his head; he wouldn't think on such matters, he had confidence that Zabuza would join them, even if he had to reveal his status as the heir to the Namikaze and Uzumaki clans to do so.

Being so lost in thought; Naruto never noticed the presence behind him until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Freezing in mid step and eyes wide Naruto looked over his shoulder, to find himself staring into the light brown eyes of Anko Miterashi.

"Hello gaki (2)," she said with an evil grin. "I think it's time you answered my questions." Naruto suddenly felt his world begin to spin before his vision went black.

(Scene Break)

Zabuza smirked beneath his mask as he crushed an apple with his hand. His strength was returning to him in large amounts every day. It wouldn't be long now before he would be in fighting shape, and thus would able to finish his mission.

The man let out a soft sigh as his thoughts turned to the bridge builder and the Konoha team guarding him. He really wished that he hadn't taken this assignment, being a body guard and killing hordes of hunter ninja chasing him he could handle. Killing an innocent man who was doing what was trying to do the right thing for his family? Not so much.

Truthfully he wished that he wasn't on the run and being forced to take jobs like this to provide for him and Haku. He did have some honor you know.

He sighed again as the one he viewed as a daughter entered his thoughts. Haku disserved a life far from the one she had. She disserved to live a life of peace and fulfillment in a village somewhere, not the life of a ninja on the run. Haku disserved to meet a nice boy to fall in love with and start a family, not that of an emotionless tool. Though if she ever did meet such a boy, then the boy would have to prove himself to him before he would be allowed to go anywhere near this man's daughter.

Zabuza smirked at the last thought, when had he started to think of Haku as such? In reality he didn't know, but he'd be damned if the feeling of raising a girl like Haku didn't bring a sense of pride to his heart.

He sighed again as he shook his head, damn he was getting soft. That thought however brought a small chuckle from the man's throat. Him, Zabuza Momochi, the _Demon of the Bloody Mist,_ going soft over a teenage girl? The very idea was laughable. But yet here he was thinking about how the said girl disserved a better life than what she was currently leading. Yep, he'd gone soft all right.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the door open, and turned to see Haku standing in the door way with a far off look in her eyes, a basket of herbs in her arms and small blush staining her cheeks.

Hardening his nerves at the sight of his daughter figure, Zabuza spoke, "good your back. Start getting ready, we move the day after tomorrow."

As Zabuza's voice reached her ears, Haku seemed to snap out of her state, "um, Zabuza-Sama?" she asked hesitantly.

The swordsman quirked a nonexistent eyebrow at the girls hesitation, usually when she wanted something she told him outright. "Hmm?" he signaled her to speak.

"Y-You might want to read this," she said reaching into her basket and extracting the scroll Naruto had given her, before handing it over to her teacher/master.

Quirking a brow Zabuza unraveled the scroll and began to read it.

'_Zabuza-_

_My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and if you're reading this then I must tell you that Gato is planning on betraying you when you finish off the old man. He never intended to pay you from the start; instead he plans on killing you and turning in your head for the reward._

_If you're wondering how I know all this…let's just say I have my ways and leave it at that. But I must ask you to quit working with Gato and join Konoha, I can guaranty that you and Haku will be welcomed with open arms; Konoha isn't like the Mist village is when it comes to blood-lines, in fact the village practically warships them._

_Trust me Zabuza; the Hokage sees me as a grandson and I can guaranty that you will be able to at least be given asylum, entering the shinobi ranks though will be an entire different matter. _

_Please Zabuza this is a once in a life time possibility, if not for yourself then do this for Haku, she disserves a much better life than what you two are leading. _

_Any and all questions you have will be answered by me personally if you decide to join us._

_Sincerely:_

_Naruto Uzumaki._

_The most unpredictable ninja of the leaf!'_

As he finished reading one would be able to see a mixture of things in Zabuza's eyes, most prominent would be, confusion and anger.

Anger at how Gato was going to betray them, and confusion at how this kid could possibly know all he did.

Glancing up at Haku Zabuza saw that her face had a hopeful look. Zabuza sighed again, the kid did have a point, Haku did deserve a better life; a life he himself wouldn't be able to give her. It was odd how this Naruto kid seemed to be able to read one's emotions without actually being there to do so.

Zabuza's face hardened as he made his decision. A decision that would alter life as they knew it.

* * *

**(1): Something that came with Naruto's enhanced senses, along with the smell, hearing, and sight, he can get a feel of a persons chakra by just being in their presence for a moment.**

**(2): Yes, yes, I know it's a little harsh, but they're ninja. Being killers is in their job description. **

* * *

**As promised here's the final harem:**

**Akane**

**Tenten**

**Anko**

**Haku**

**Gaia (Fem. Gaara)**

**Fu **

**Yugito**

* * *

**Aaaannndd CUT!**

**Okay everyone, once again I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, it would have been longer had I had a clue about what I'm gonna do with the confrontation between Naruto and Anko. But rest assured I will figure something out and it will be in the next chapter.**

**And about Zabuza's attitude in this, basically he views Haku as his daughter, but won't show it until he has to. I was just giving insight about what I thought might be going through his head at the time. Please don't flame me.**

**Also I have posted a challenge on my profile page, please check it out and if you want to take it send me a PM.**

**Oh yeah I have a special gust here who would like to say a few words to you, so please give a warm welcome to the Kyuubi no Yoko; Akane!**

**Akane: please review this story, or I'll be forced to unleash my power upon you all!**

**Shadow12: (sweat drops) rrrright, well you heard the lady, leave a review please.**

**Shadow12 out!**


	14. A confrontation and the battle on the br

**Hey everyone here's the newest chapter for you all. It's the beginning of the bridge fight, and the confrontation between Naruto and Anko. **

**Also I noticed that I made a mistake on the final harem last chapter, you see I meant to put Yugito on the list, I've corrected that mistake now so no flames please.**

**(Dodges a kunai) Shadow12: "what the…Tenten? What the hell? And more importantly, how'd you get here?"**

**Tenten: (shrugs) "l don't know, but how could you make a mistake on the harem?" (Raises a kunai and approaches author with a threatening look)**

**Shadow12: (backing away, while waving my hands frantically) "It was a typo, I swear!" (Ducks a thrown kunai and takes off running), "AHH! SOMEONE HELP! AND SOMEONE DO THE DISCLAIMER!" **

**Tenten: (running after the author) "get back here!"**

**Akane: (Sighs as she watches the author run for his life) "Shadow12 does not own Naruto or any of the characters used in the making of this story." (Turns and begins to chase the author as well) "Save some for me Tenten!"**

* * *

_The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now.__ –Bill Cosby_

* * *

**Chapter 14: battle on the bridge Part: 1**

Naruto jolted awake as a bucket of freezing water splashed into his face. Spiting and spluttering he looked around to see that he had three problems.

First was that Anko was standing in front of him with a kunai in hand, looking at him in hunger (the bucket used to splash the water on him having mysteriously disappeared). Second, his hands were bound tightly behind his back with ninja wire, making sure he couldn't use any hand seals to escape. And third…he was hanging upside down from a tree branch by his ankles.

'_Just how did I get myself into this?' _he thought with a sweat drop.

"Well, well." Anko said with a smirk. "Looks like the gaki's finally awake."

She approached him, her smile growing more and more predatory with each step, until she was right in front of him. "So, like I said before we left the village; I have some questions for you, and you _will _answer them. Understand?" she questioned as she held the tip of the kunai to his cheek.

Gulping, Naruto nodded slowly, trying to ignore the feeling of his blood rushing to his head.

Anko's smile widened. "Good." She said happily. "Now care to explain what you and your little girlfriends have been up to in the village recently? What are you capable of? And just what the hell are you trying to prevent?"

"What are y-" Naruto tried to get out but was silenced when Anko pressed the kunai's tip harder against his cheek. Not enough to really hurt him but enough to draw a small amount of blood.

"Quiet brat," she said narrowing her eyes. "I saw you make that giant Shuriken technique a while ago, and I've followed you and your little lady friends around since then. Now answer the questions!"

On the outside Naruto kept a calm mask over his emotions as he stared lazily at his interrogator; on the inside however, he was panicking, _'SHIT! WHAT'RE WE GONNA DO!? SHE FOUND OUT!' _

Akane was holding her ears in pain do to how loud Naruto was screaming in his mind, while she growled softly, _**'so we were right.' **_She thought as one of the theories she and Tenten had thought of proved to be true.

"**Naruto," **she said, calming trying to get his attention from his panicked thoughts. **"You need to calm down." **

'_And how am I supposed to do that, huh? We were being careful about where we talked about our plans and she still found out! And the worst part is that I couldn't even sense her, and you obviously didn't if you haven't told me about it.'_ Naruto thought back to her, not knowing how wrong he was.

"…**," **He was met with an uneasy silence.

'_Akane, you didn't know she was following us did you?'_

"**He-he." **Akane chuckled nervously.

'_OH COME ON!' _he raged, now having a twitching eyebrow. This was delicate information for crying out loud, they couldn't tell just anyone about them being from the future. Despite being brash in his earlier years, this was not something he was willing to give out. He didn't want someone to turn him into the Hokage for knowing more than he should or put him in an insane asylum.

'_Fine, what are we gonna do?' _he asked.

"**You might as well tell her, it's not like we have a lot to lose anyway." **Akane replied with a grumble.

Once again letting out a sigh; Naruto turned his attention outward to the annoyed looking Jonin.

"I'm waiting, gaki." Anko said annoyed at his silence.

"Fine!" Naruto relented, "but you won't believe what I'm about to tell you."

Anko smirked, "Try me."

And so Naruto told her, with a little coaching from Akane when he needed it, holding back little to no information about what was going to happen, why they came back and their plans. When he was finished, some ten minutes later, Anko had forgotten all previous thoughts she had about him; her eyes were wide and her face held a look of extreme disbelief.

After a full five minutes of waiting for a response, Naruto cleared his throat

"Okay," Anko said trying to recover her thoughts. "So you, the Kyuubi and that bun haired girl are from five years in the future. Came back in time to stop the war that caused you to do said time travel, and along the way you want to stop several events from happening, mainly an invasion being organized by my old sensei set to take place in this year's Chunin Exams?" Anko asked, spitting out the word _sensei._

Naruto merely nodded.

"One more question." Anko said.

Naruto simply signaled for her to speak, the blood to his head was starting to get uncomfortable.

"Do you really EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT LOAD OF BULL?" She bellowed.

Naruto simply shrugged as he ignored the ringing in his ears, "I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Okay then." Anko said, her eyes narrowing again, "if this is true, prove it. If you can't then I'll turn you into the Hokage for attempted treason."

Naruto looked a little stunned at her preposition, find away to prove it or be turned in for treason?

'_Hmmm. Tuff choice.' _He thought sarcastically before he smirked; he had the perfect way to prove it.

"How about the fact that you secretly are a total 'Icha-Icha' fan?" he asked. Anko went wide eyed; no one was supposed to know that dirty secret!

"Or that you secretly are a really soft person, only using your tuff, bitchy and blood lusty appearance to mask the pain the village has dealt you?" he asked sadly, this was starting to bring up a time far more painful for him too; a time where he had once been friends with the women in front of him.

Anko's expression was shocked beyond belief; no one and she means no one, but her closest friends were supposed to know that about her.

"H-How?" she asked more to herself than him, but Naruto answered anyway.

"You told me yourself, Anko." He said as he gained a far off look, "right before the war started we went on a mission together and became friends after I took a kunai to the shoulder to protect you. You felt guilty for days afterwards and stayed by my side even though it healed a day later thanks to Akane-Chan's chakra." He said. "Once you trusted me enough you began to drop your mask, and I actually caught you reading one of the books." He explained as the images of the time flashed through his mind. He chuckled lightly at the last part before shuddering; Anko's threat for discovering that secret didn't exactly do…'ahem'…friendly things to his anatomy.

Anko's face still held a look of doubt, but now her eyes showed she was starting to believe. "I-It'll take m-more than that to convince me," She said, still unsure.

Pulling himself out of his memories, Naruto sighed and wondered if he should really pull out this next one. Then again he needed to if she was going to fully believe him, "and I can remove that cursed seal on your neck." He said and Anko became rigid.

"C-Can you really d-do that?" she asked shakily reaching up and rubbing the black mark on her, otherwise blemish free, skin. If he really could then all doubts would be gone from her mind.

Naruto nodded, "I've studied the design for the last three years of my life. In my timeline Orochimaru gave Sasuke the upgraded version of yours. When I offered you this the first time around, you, um," Here he paused trying to find away to describe future Anko's attempts at thanking him. They were quite _'ahem' _erotic, though he did manage to get away with his innocence intact in the end.

"Thanked me quite _profusely_," he said turning his head to the side with a blush.

Anko looked confused for a moment before she saw his red face and blushed herself, mentally cursing her alternate self. She could understand though, the kid was quite good looking without his shirt on and it made her wonder if his stamina applied to other aspects in his life, _'Damn it girl, you're off track again! Stop blushing like a school girl around her first crush and focus!'_ She reprimanded herself turning a deeper red than a certain Hyuuga.

Akane smiled again, she knew that look. A look filled with embarrassment, a hint of affection and lust. She nodded with a smug smile; she and Tenten could definitely work with this.

Anko, after getting her blush to a level of decent control, sighed in exasperation. "Alright then," She decided. "I'll believe you as long as you get this damn mark off me." She said, angrily pointing at the seal on the base of her neck.

Naruto nodded. "So long as you don't tell anyone this, I will." He said narrowing his gaze at her. Anko shrugged it off, if he really could remove her sensei's taint from her than she'd be willing to keep a few secrets.

"You don't need to worry about that kid." She said, "in fact I'll do you one better; I'll help you."

Naruto stared at her in confusion, trying to comprehend why she would want to help them. Anko seeing this huffed, "don't think too much into it gaki. I'm going to need away to thank you for eventually getting this mark off me and if everything you said was true then I can't very easily watch you mess up."

Naruto nodded, despite the need to make sure the timeline wouldn't be messed up beyond repair he knew they couldn't do this without some kind of help and he'd take any he could get, even if it was unexpected.

He was jerked out of his thoughts when a kunai went whizzing by his head, cutting his cheek a small amount.

Pulling himself together as best he could while he was still bound, Naruto glared up at Anko, "What the hell was that for?" he shouted.

Anko grinned menacingly, "well, I figured if I'm gonna help you and your little _girlfriends _fix the timeline_, _I might as well help in your training as well. And I'll start with your reaction and dodging time" She said as her grin grew.

Naruto gulped, that look and the overly sweet way she had said 'girlfriends' spelt trouble for him. And if his past experiences with Anko meant anything, when she caused trouble it was usually accompanied by pain, lots of it.

Naruto whimpered as Anko readied another kunai, he knew this was going to hurt…a lot.

'_**Two days later'**_

"We're heading to the bridge now." Tazuna stated to Tsunami as he, Kakashi, Anko, Sasuke, and Sakura stood outside the house prepared to leave.

"Naruto pushed himself to far last night, so let him sleep a little longer then send him after us." Kakashi said sending a small glare to Anko, who just chuckled sheepishly. "When he gets up let him know to set a few clones for guards and then send him to the bridge."

"Of course." Tsunami agreed with a nod.

With that the group set off towards the bridge, only one knowing that they'd be walking into a battle field.

'_I hope you know what you're doing, Gaki.' _Anko thought looking back to see a shadow watching them from a window on the top floor of Tazuna's house.

* * *

Naruto watched with a bit of regret as his team walked from the house to the bridge. He hated waiting but knew he had to deal with the two samurai thugs who'd come after Tsunami and Inari personally instead of letting a shadow clone for the work. There was too much of a risk of it being hit and dispelled before it could finish with them.

Shaking his head to clear the thoughts Naruto turned his mind back to his recent training and shuddered a bit.

Anko wasn't like any of his past or future teachers. She was worse.

Much, _much _worse.

Anko had meant it when she said that she wouldn't sit back and let him possibly mess up the timeline worse than what it had been. After learning what she wanted she had started by testing his reaction and dodging times (as stated earlier), by leaving him tied to the tree and forcing him to dodge swarm after swarm of Kunai and Shuriken.

After that they had moved onto sparing, and Naruto learned that she was just as brutal in this as she was before, not to mention a bit erotic **(A/N: for lack of a better word)**.He says erotic meaning that she wasn't above using her body to her advantage. Every time Naruto managed to get a blow in she'd shift in away that the blonde had no choice but to glimpse some part of her figure, and then she'd hit back, painfully.

Anko had drilled him mercilessly over the last two days, always doing her utmost best to expose his weaknesses and capitalize on them. If he had ever had a thought to girls being weak in his younger years then that thought would have been rolled into a ball, skewered ten times and tossed into the sun when faced with Anko's training. She forced him to become faster due to fright, Anko obviously didn't believe in pulling her punches, with her it was always a bloody fight from start to finish as Naruto tried to keep his limbs attached to his body. Not that he couldn't beat her, but most of his strengths lied in techniques and styles he either wasn't supposed to know in this point in time, or his body was unable to handle the strain they put on him. Before the time jump he was a Kage level shinobi, but due to those restraints placed on him and his body he was barley Chunin level.

On top of that he wasn't allowed to use any clones or jutsu in their spars, if he even tried to than she would hit worse than before, her rule was pure Tiajutsu only. She said it would 'help him surprise his opponents better if he didn't use his clones right from the start'. She'd up the strength of her hits if he broke that rule. Naruto was quickly learning to rely on his clones less in his fights and more on his own abilities to fight one on one, lest he want another beating. He may be a quick healer, but the pain was less than pleasant.

And as for the cursed seal? Anko still had it, but it would be removed shortly after their return to Konoha; the removal process took more sealing supplies than what he had with him at the moment. That and a clearing in the forest of wave didn't exactly offer the best of places to remove it.

Speaking of seals, he'd had time to test the one he'd been working on since Tenten had given him the idea, and it turned out to be a complete success. Though, the pain of having more than one clone work beside him when he trained physically was a strong deterrent for having a hundred clones working with his physical strength like those on his chakra control or techniques. Plus he didn't want a lot of bulky muscles to slow him down. He made sure to never summon more than one shadow clone with the physical seal (2); it wasn't worth the pain.

Naruto was broken from his thoughts when the sound of the front door being kicked off its hinges reached his ears followed by a scream.

'_Well,' _he thought with a grin and pulling out a kunai, _'time to get to work.'_

* * *

"What happened here!?" Tazuna shouted as his eyes took in the scene greeting the group as they arrived at the construction site. The unconscious bodies of the dozen or so workers Tazuna had were strewn across the bridge. Rushing to one of his men, Tazuna knelt beside the barley conscious man; a senbon having pierced the back of his neck. "What happened here, Kota?" he asked.

"M-M-Monsters!" the man gasped out before succumbing to unconsciousness.

"This is odd." Kakashi muttered as he checked the pulse of a worker. "None of them are dead, just knocked out." He said before he noticed a mist rolling in, "Team seven! Triangle formation, now!" he ordered and the two Genin and Anko formed a protective formation around Tazuna.

As he spoke a chuckle rang out of the thickening mist causing the four shinobi to tense, each drawing a kunai.

"No need for that," Zabuza's voice chuckled, "I knocked the workers out to prevent anyone from hearing my answer to the brat's proposal." Zabuza stated as he and Haku, dressed in her hunter garb, minus the mask, appeared through the mist. "Speaking of whom, where is the brat?"

"Naruto will be here shortly." Kakashi informed with narrow eyes, "So what'll it be Zabuza? Will you fight against us or will you join Konoha?"

There was a tense moment of silence before Zabuza answered, "We'll join."

The Konoha shinobi let out a breath they didn't know they'd been holding.

"So you'll quit Gato's service?" Kakashi asked.

"That's what I just said; besides, I never liked the little bastard anyways." Zabuza stated, but still reached for his sword.

"However, I want him to think we're still working with him to draw him out." He said, "Care to help?"

Kakashi looked over his shoulder to his team, Anko just shrugged and the Genin still looked tense.

"Why not?" Kakashi shrugged turning back to the ex Kiri-nin, his kunai drawn and gripped firmly in his grasp. "What about your apprentice?" he asked eyeing Haku warily.

Zabuza chuckled, hefting his sword onto his shoulder. "Haku here was going to fight that blonde brat of yours, but seeing as he isn't here at the moment, I guess the dark haired one will work just as well."

"Very well." Kakashi stated looking back to see Sasuke at the ready. Turning back to Zabuza again Kakashi prepared himself. "No holding back?"

Zabuza smirked, "agreed."

With that the two Jonin charged and met sword to kunai in a shower of sparks, their weapons grinding against the other.

"I must admit Zabuza," Kakashi grunted as he strained against the massive sword, "you're stronger then you look."

The rouge ninja only smirked beneath his bandages.

Sasuke, having been distracted when the Jonin met in battle, turned his attention back to the Zabuza's apprentice, only to find her gone from his sight. _'Where'd she go?' _he questioned before he felt a finger tap his shoulder.

He turned only to have his face introduced to a feminine fist before being sent flying back.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura shouted in worry when she saw her crush get sent flying. Anko sighed at her; no matter what she tried to get the girl to straighten out it didn't work, and she's one of the best at breaking fangirls!

She'd have to have a long talk with the Hokage after they got back to the village.

Rolling to a stop, Sasuke jumped to his feet in a ready stance, only to see Haku in front of him. "Hello," The girl said, "my name is Haku and it appears we will be fighting."

Sasuke smirked, sensing the underlying challenge in the statement. "Sasuke Uchiha." He replied.

"Well than Uchiha-san, shall we begin?" Haku asked readying herself.

Sasuke smirked as he nodded. "We shall."

And thus the battle of the bridge began.

* * *

**(1): anyone got a name they could suggest for the seal he developed? I'm no good at naming things like that.**

* * *

**Cut!**

**Shadow12: "Okay so here's the 14****th**** chapter of Back to the Beginning, and I would like to think each and every one of you readers who suggested their ideas, especially to FinalKingdomHearts, onefunrun and Pseudocode Samurai for most of them, and an idea or two for future chapters."**

**Tenten: "what did we learn today?" **

**Shadow12: (whimpers) "to make sure to go over the chapter so I can catch any mistakes I made before I post it."**

**Akane: (pats head) "good boy."**

**Shadow12: (grumbles) "you're gonna pay."**

**Akane: "what was that?"**

**Shadow12: (cowering in a corner) "nothing! Please close out the chapter."**

**Akane: "right," (turns to the readers) "please review the chapter…or I'll go fox on you!"**

**Shadow12: (crying comically) "she's not joking!"**


	15. Battle on the Bridge pt2

**Hey everyone!**

**Sorry if this is a little late, but I had to work on some school work, look for a job and I recently started Betaing for ****DeviSatos****. Hopefully I'll be able to get the job I applied for, but I'm not gonna count my chickens just yet.**

**Anyway I hope you all like this chapter, even though I didn't particularly like how the Zabuza vs. Kakashi fight turned out.**

**This chapter will be somewhat close to the original plot…well from what I can remember from the original plot anyway. I will take constructive criticism though.**

**Oh, and as a side note, this will probably be one of the longest chapters in this story so far, so there's another reason why this took so long to get out. :P**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters used to make this story.**

* * *

"_We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.__"__ –__George Bernard Shaw._

* * *

**Chapter 15: Battle on the Bridge pt. 2**

Tsunami screamed as the front door to her house was kicked off its hinges, allowing Gato's samurai thugs to easily walk in.

"You're the bridge builder's daughter?" the smaller of the two asked, before he smirked. "You're coming with us. Just come along nice and easy like and you won't get hurt." The swordsman stated as his eyes trailed over her form.

Tsunami backed away, knowing full well that what he said was a lie. Naruto, as far as she knew, was still unconscious upstairs; he probably hadn't even heard her scream. How wrong she was.

"Mom!" Inari shouted upon stepping into the room and seeing the samurai.

"Inari! Quick, run away!" Tsunami screamed in a panic.

"Oh, there's the other one." The taller of the thugs stated lowly. "Gato said we only needed one hostage right?" he asked turning to his partner.

"Yep," the other agreed his smirk widening.

"Good, my blade has been hungry for some real blood for awhile now." The larger samurai smirked, unsheathing his sword and walking towards Inari's terrified form.

"Don't you dare!" Tsunami shouted, causing the large samurai to stop and turn to look at her. "If you so much as touch my son, I'll bit my own tongue off and drown in my blood. You'll have no hostages then. Please, just leave my son be and I'll go quietly." She desperately begged.

The two thugs exchanged a look before the larger of the two sheathed his sword; having a little fun wasn't worth failing their job.

"You're lucky kid." The swordsman stated mockingly, as he grabbed Tsunami and tied her hands behind her back, "let's go." He ordered as he and his partner, standing on either of her sides, led her out the door with firm hands on her shoulders.

Inari collapsed as tears began to make their way down his face. "I'm so useless." He cried, "I'm too weak to do anything other than cry." Suddenly Naruto's, Kakashi's and even Kaiza's, his father figure, voices rang through his head.

"_Ever since that day, I have never seen Naruto shed a single tear. I think he realized crying over his life would accomplish nothing….trust me when I say this, Naruto knows better than anyone else what it means to suffer."_

"_Inari, when there are things you need to protect, then protect them with everything you have, with all the strength you have in your own arms. Only then, will you truly be strong." _

"_I'm not one to just give up without a fight kid…__**You at least have a family, something I never had! So stop sitting around here doing nothing, and start fighting to protect them!"**_

Something sifted within the young man when he heard those words again. _'No more running, no more crying!'_ he decided as he stood and grabbed a kitchen knife before racing out the door, where the samurai were just about to enter the forest.

"Let my mother go!" Inari screamed, charging forward with the knife held out in front of him.

_Smack!_

He was sent fly back from a backhand by the smaller of the two samurai.

"This kid is getting on my nerves." He grunted, walking towards the downed boy and slowly drawing his blade.

"Don't you d-" Tsunami started before falling forward.

"Shut it already." The larger swordsman grunted as he lowered his hand from where he had just struck the young mother, before turning to his partner. "Don't take too long, we have to meet the boss at the bridge in a few minutes."

Inari closed his eyes as the samurai raised his sword; he could only wait for the end.

* * *

Sasuke and Haku collided, kunai against senbon.

"Your speed is impressive." Haku commented as they strained against the other's weapon, "Your sensei trained you well."

Sasuke smirked, "thanks. But the credit shouldn't go entirely to Kakashi-sensei."

"Oh?" Haku questioned, a brow raised.

Sasuke nodded, "Naruto has helped me in my training over the last month we've been a team." He stated, flashing back to the few one on one training sessions the two Genin had had. "His training may be brutal sometimes, but it produces results. And I must say…. You're quite fast yourself." Sasuke complimented, putting more strength behind his kunai.

Haku grunted as she too added more strength to the weapon lock. "You're strong too…though I have three advantages you do not." She stated, getting a look of confusion from the ravine haired boy.

"Three advantages?"

Haku smirked. "First, while you may be close to my speed, I am the faster of us. Second, we are surrounded by water. And third…I don't need both hands for hand seals." She said as she used her free hand to go though hand signs, much to Sasuke's surprise, "Secret Jutsu: Thousand Flying Water Needles!" she called out while slamming her foot into the ground, causing the accumulated water on the bridge to fly upward, shaping itself into a thousand needles made from water, which quickly flew straight for the Uchiha.

Sasuke frowned as he broke away from the young ice user and went through hand signs of his own, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" he shouted as a flaming ball of fire shot out of his mouth, causing the needles to evaporate as they hit the flames, which in turn put out the fireball in a torrent of steam.

Haku raised a brow as she watched her technique be stopped by the fire; usually water would have the advantage over fire, but it seems the Uchiha had somehow matched her jutsu with the most disadvantaged element.

'_To be able to match my jutsu; this one is quiet skilled in the use of fire manipulation.' _She thought, truly impressed.

"I'll admit," Sasuke said looking at Haku's out line through the steam. "One handed seals are impressive." He formed a fist and disappeared. "But you are not faster than me!" he finished as he reappeared in front of Haku and dealt a strong blow to her stomach, sending the young ice user flying backwards.

Sasuke reset his stance as he allowed Haku to regain her footing.

Haku had taken worse blows before; both in her training and previous jobs, but the hit still dazed her. She shook her head to regain her bearings, "it seems I cannot hold back against you. That is unfortunate…for you." She calmly stated as she prepared a unique hand sign and her form began to glow with blue chakra.

"And how is it unfortunate for me?" Sasuke asked a little put off by the amount of chakra coming off her.

Haku smirked slightly, "it is unfortunate because, while I cannot kill you due to our alliance, I can still physically harm you." She said. Normally she hated harming others, but this was so they could draw Gato out and finish him; and if she were to tell the truth, she was actually having a little fun.

Slowly gathering her chakra and channeling it into the water around her she called out her jutsu, "Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!"

* * *

_Zabuza vs. Kakashi_

"Well Zabuza, I must say your student is impressive. There aren't that many people who can use hand seals with one hand." Kakashi stated after taking a glance in the direction of Haku and Sasuke's fight.

"That she is." Zabuza stated proudly, "Haku is the last of her clan, and is extremely skilled in the use of her Kekkei Genkai." He said swinging his sword in an attempt to decapitate the copy-nin.

Ducking beneath the swipe, Kakashi raised a brow as he went in for a punch at the missing-nin's stomach. "She has a blood-line?" he asked curiously.

"You'll see." Zabuza smirked before stowing his sword on his back and going through a set of seals, "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" he shouted as a dragon made of the surrounding water formed and launched itself at the copy-nin.

Eye widening slightly Kakashi jumped back, "well then," he said, reaching for his head band. "I guess it's time to up the ante." He said revealing his Sharingan eye.

Zabuza chuckled, "that's not going to work this time, Kakashi."

"And whys that?" Kakashi asked in interest as he readied himself for anything. Hey they may be allies now, but they still had to put on a convincing show.

"Because, I have found the weakness to that eye of yours," Zabuza smirked going through hand signs. "Hidden mist jutsu!" he exclaimed and the mist thickened around them.

"And how is this going to help you?" Kakashi asked, looking around the mist for any sign of the rouge-nin.

Zabuza's chuckling voice rang from all around white mist, "it'll help by blocking off the sight to the Sharingan. I noticed while we fought the first time that your eyes never left mine and I came to the conclusion that you need to keep constant eye contact with a person so you can work you little eye tricks."

"You'll see that I have other tricks up my sleeves, Zabuza." Kakashi said, but he was beginning to sweat on the inside, _'damn! He wasn't joking when found the Sharingan's weakness.' _He thought as he covered up the eye to conserve chakra. He'd just lost the advantage of his main trump card; there was no use in wasting chakra now that it was useless.

However, both he and Zabuza froze when they felt an immense chakra spike and heard a voice call out. "Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!"

Kakashi turned and froze in shock at what he saw. "T-That's the-"

Zabuza smirked, "like I said, Kakashi. Haku is extremely skilled in her blood-line. I'm just surprised that she decided to use it this early, that brat of yours must be quite skilled to make her use it."

Kakashi nodded, but did not take his eyes off the battle he saw before him.

* * *

_Tazuna's house_

Inari braced himself as he waited for the strike that would end his life.

And waited….

…And waited some more…

Finally, after a few minutes of waiting, Inari opened his eyes to see what had happened.

What he found was the short samurai's sword a few mere inches away from his face. The blade and the arm holding it were being stopped by another blade, only it wasn't made of metal. No this blade was made entirely out of fire, with its handle being nothing more than a flickering flame. And holding that flaming handle was a hand covered in a black, fingerless glove. Attached to the black-gloved hand was none other than Naruto Uzumaki himself. He was off to the side slightly and Inari could see the smirk on the blonde's face.

"That was brave, Inari. Stupid as fuck, but brave nonetheless." He said as his eyes flickered to the child, his smirk slowly going from a smirk to a small grin. "You might just be able to be a hero after all."

The samurai, however, did not like to be ignored, "you little punk!" he snarled, as he tried to move he's sword back, but Naruto was using a small amount of chakra to make the blade stick to his own, fire made sword. The thug reared his free arm back, ready to strike the whiskered blonde. "Let my sword go!" he shouted as he let his fist fly in an attempt to clobber the blonde brat. Only for said brat to catch his fist in his free hand.

Naruto slowly turned to face the shorter swordsman, all the warmth gone from his eyes as he gazed at the thug in disgust. He'd waited for them to take Tsunami out of the house and Inari to charge at them for three reasons. The first being that he wanted to stick as close to the original timeline as possible, and the second was so that Inari could find the bravery to risk his life to save his mother like he had the last time. And the third was that he didn't want to stain the walls of the house with the blood that would undoubtedly be shed. Unfortunately he had waited a moment too long and let the shorter of the two get close to killing Inari, something that he was relieved to have stopped in the nick of time.

"You," the blonde said leaking a bit of Akane's chakra into his voice to make it deeper, and thus more threatening, but not quite demonic. "Are a disgrace to all humans." He said as he tightened his grip on the thug's hand to the point of cracking the bones. "You turned your blade on an innocent kid for nothing more than the fact you could." He snarled as his eyes flickered to red for a moment before turning back to their icy blue. "You're going to regret that." He hissed as he finally tightened his fist enough to shatter the bones in the samurai's hand.

The samurai howled in pain as his hand exploded in pain, but Naruto did not let him free from his grasp. "Gaahh! Damn it brat let me go!" the swordsman shouted as he yanked his hand away to free himself, only for the blonde to smirk and let him go. The man stumbled backward his other hand dropping its grip on his sword in favor of cradling his broken hand.

"Slim like you two don't disserve to be in this world and aren't even worth using my jutsu against." Naruto hissed as he let the fire sword dissipate as he drew his hands back and began a short string of hand signs.

"Lightning style:," the blonde whispered as he disappeared from sight. The samurais looked around in a panic when they saw him disappear, only to find no sign of the whiskered blonde in the clearing.

Suddenly the shorter of the two went stiff as a board and cried out in pain as blood erupted from his mouth. "Lightning Palm!" Naruto whispered the name of the jutsu as he let the lightning around his palm die and the samurai to fall; dead from an electrical overload to his nervous system.

"W-What the…!? Zori!" the larger samurai yelled in shock as he saw his partner fall to the ground without a wound on him. Seeing his partner get taken out by a boy just into his teenage years, with a single touch was not what he had signed up for. He drew his sword as fast as he could with his hand shaking and pointed it at the unconscious Tsunami's head. "D-Don't take another s-step, k-kid or I'll cut the bitch's head off!" the dark haired thug screamed, his voice and sword shaking as he tried to look intimidating. (Yeah, not working so well.)

Naruto turned and leveled a cold glare at the panicked samurai before he vanished in another burst of speed.

"Where'd he go?" the thug asked in shock and slight despair as he looked around.

"Behind you," a voice whispered in his ear before a foot, glowing blue with chakra, connected with his head in a vicious round house kick, sending him flying into the side of a nearby tree. There was a sickening _crunch _to tell him that the samurai's skull had been smashed on impact; it told him as much as the now leaking down from the swordsman's hair line. The thug, like his partner, was dead.

Naruto landed beside Tsunami in a crouch and checked her pulse.

He sighed in relief when he felt a steady heart beat, if she was lucky then there would be no harm to her other than a nasty bump on her head accompanied by a head ach when she awoke.

As he knelt there he brought his attention to the bridge in the distance, and blinked where he saw that the center of it was covered in a thick mist.

'_I guess Zabuza decided to fight against us despite my warning.' _He sighed as he shook his head. His hand instinctively reached for his neck and made to grasp at something.

It was a habit he had gotten into during his training trip with Jiraiya, every time he would get to deep into his thoughts his hand would reach up and take a hold of the necklace Tsunade gave him. He hadn't done that much during the war due to having to think on his feet most of the time and he found his hand patting the collar of his shirt as it felt for the green crystal.

'_Oh yeah,'_ he thought sadly. _'I haven't meet baa-Chan yet.'_ He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he heard Akane speak up.

"**Naru-kun, use sage mode to take a look at the bridge; I don't think Zabuza decided to fight against us. It might be a ploy to draw Gato out." ** She suggested, it was a long shot but it was possible.

"_Alright."_ He thought back to her before he sent a mental command to a clone on back in the house, he had created to gather nature chakra, should he need it, to dispel.

Almost immediately afterwards Naruto felt the nature chakra flowing through him, already in synch with his own chakra thanks to the clone. Feeling his appearance change to fit the new chakra Naruto closed his eyes to sense out the happenings on the bridge.

'_Man do I miss this.' _he thought in longing, referring to the times when he could openly use sage mode without suspicion.

"**Focus, Naruto." **Akane reminded him with a giggle.

Sighing with a small sweat drop Naruto did as told and his brow quirked in question to what he found. Four of the chakra's on the bridge where flaring like they would in battle, but they were nowhere near what they would have been had they been fighting for their lives. It was almost like…"they're putting on a show." Naruto muttered and his expression morphed into a sly grin.

'_Man you guys, you had me worried there.'_ He thought in relief, only to sweat drop when he heard Akane giggling, **"Told you."**

"_Yes, yes I know," _Naruto thought, the sweat drop growing a small amount. _'I bow down to the immense and unlimited knowledge of the mighty Akane-Sama." _He sarcastically thought, rolling his eyes.

"**Yes, bow down mortal, BOW DOWN! For you are not the first, nor the last to do so!" **Akane exclaimed, going into what Naruto had found to be her temporarily bout of insanity mode. Hey, you don't live for several hundred years without going a little crazy.

"_Akane-Chan." _Naruto tried to get her to listen, only for her to continue as if she hadn't heard him.

"**First I shall start with the shinobi villages, and then I'll move on to the WORLD!"**

"_Akane."_

"**Soon! Oh so very soon, the entire world shall bow before the might, intelligence, and over all power and beauty of Akane: the mighty KYUUBI NO YOKO! Hahahahah!" **she once more exclaimed, this time beginning to laugh insanely.

"_AKANE!" _ Naruto shouted over her laughing, this time getting a reaction out of the red head.

"**Eh? Wha…?" **she stopped with a start as she looked around in confusion, before she realized what must have happened. **"I was doing it again wasn't I?"** she asked in a down trodden voice.

Naruto mentally nodded to her with a twitching eyebrow, causing Akane to blush in embarrassment, **"Ehehehe," **she giggled sheepishly, **"yes, well…carry on." **She said before cutting the mental link; most likely so she wouldn't have to deal with the embarrassment of her bout.

Naruto face faulted with a sweat drop when he heard this. Leave it to Akane to act all crazy like then hide a way in his mind. He shook his head as he allowed the sage chakra to leave him and stood as he turned to the approaching Inari.

"N-Naruto?" Inari asked in confusion as he approached the kneeling blonde. The older boy had been staring off into space for a few moments before a weird, red pigment had appeared around his eyes and said eyes had turned red and gained slitted pupils again before they closed and his eyebrows started to twitch.

"Hey, Inari." The blonde muttered as he focused his attention on the young boy. "Sorry about that. But I got lost in some…personal thoughts. You alright?" he asked after a moment's pause. Inari nodded his head shakily. Naruto noticed tears forming in the boy's eyes before Inari tried to wipe them away.

"I-I promised myself that I wouldn't cry anymore, but yet I already am." The boy whispered whipping at his eyes.

Naruto chuckled softly and ruffled the boy's hair, "you know Inari," he said, "There's a difference between tears of sadness and tears of joy. There isn't any shame in lettering the latter of the two out." Naruto finished with a small grin.

He knew that he could waist a little more time since his team wasn't in any need of help like they were last time, but he'd have to go soon. Just before he let sage mode fall he'd felt a large mass of chakra approaching the bridge from the ocean; Gato was on his way.

Inari nodded silently as he let the tears run down his face unimpeded, his expression mirroring Naruto's own.

Seeing Tsunami beginning to stir Naruto turned towards the bridge. "Listen, Inari." He said in a serious voice. His seriousness drew the boy's attention, "when your mother fully awakens get her inside and stay there." He said knowing full well that the kid wouldn't listen. He let another grin take root on his face at the memory it brought up. "I have a feeling that this is far from over; so I'm gonna head to the bridge to back up my team if anything happens. I'll leave a few clones in the area to keep you safe, but my team needs me." He said before taking off for the bridge. _'Besides there's something new I what to try out.' _

Inari stared after the retreating blonde, even after his mother had sat up rubbing her head his eyes were still locked onto the blonde's back.

"I-Inari?" Tsunami questioned as she turned her attention back to her son, only to be surprised by the smile the boy wore as he stared at Naruto's retreating figure, which was now nothing more than a dot in the distance.

"We can win." He breathed out in wonder before his smile broadened and he shouted in excitement, "We'll actually WIN!"

* * *

_Sasuke vs. Haku_

"Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!"

As soon as those words left Haku's mouth, the water around the bridge had suddenly sprung into the air around the Uchiha and slowly started to freeze solid as split into twenty one separate pieces that began to stretch and widen with a glass against glass sound as each piece grew into a mirror of solid ice floating a few inches above the other. This continued until Sasuke was completely enclosed in a dome of ice mirrors.

"W-What is this?" Sasuke asked as he watched the jutsu formation with sense of awe. The chakra he could feel radiating off the jutsu and Haku herself was immense!

Haku smirked lightly to herself as she walked to the closest mirror, "you like it?" she asked, stopping behind it. Pressing her hand against it her body seemed to be absorbed slowly into the ice, her reflection taking form inside the mirror as her body disappeared outside it. As soon as her body was completely consumed her reflection seemed to mirror itself in every single one of the ice mirrors.

"This is my ultimate technique, many have fallen to it and it is inescapable." Haku stated, her voice echoing out from every one of the mirrors at once. When she said this she drew out a senbon and each of her reflections copied her actions, "With this my speed cannot be matched," with that Haku and each of her reflections launched the senbon from within the ice mirrors, the needles themselves passing through the surface of the mirrors in a fashion similar to rippling water.

Sasuke tried dodging the volley, but hissed in pain when he felt the sting of the skin of his arm get cut, less than a millisecond after dodging the first needles. With a matter of seconds needles were flying at him from all directions. He didn't have the time to use any hand seals for a jutsu, the senbon kept coming and he was soon rattled with them and resembled a pincushion, he was lucky Haku wasn't aiming to kill him, though he was beginning to wonder on that.

Finally after a full minuet of being cut and sliced by numerous senbon, the barrage stopped. "I'm impressed." Haku's voice echoed from all around as Sasuke fell to his knees. "Not many could have handled that many senbon and still be conscious. I guess this is the end of our fight." She sighed at the end as she took out another senbon.

'_How many of those things does she have?' _Sasuke thought in pain, he was beginning to wonder just how it was that she could have so many of those needles on her. He was already close to losing consciousness from the amount of pain running through his body and the amount of blood flowing from several of his more serious injuries.

But there was something in his mind telling him to not give up, that he had to keep fighting, something was telling him to get up and continue fighting until he couldn't stand anymore. _'Why?' _he asked it, _'This fight is just a ruse to draw out the target.' _

Suddenly something Naruto told him during one of their training sessions came to his mind.

'_**Flash back.'**_

"_Damn it dobe," Sasuke panted out, "how is it that you can keep up with this training?" he asked sending an exhausted glare to the smirking blonde standing above him._

_Naruto smirked down at the Uchiha heir, "this is the training I've been doing for the last several months, Sasuke." He said. Truthfully that was a lie, he'd been doing the training regimen he'd just put Sasuke through for since his training trip with Jiraiya before the war, but he couldn't let his dark haired friend know that could he?_

"_Trust me on this. Once you get on to the harder levels of the training this regimen will seem like a walk in the park." Naruto said, offering the downed boy a hand._

_Sasuke merely gapped at the blonde. Running near two hundred laps around a training ground, then working on chakra control for a full two hours and then sparing for another hour, all without any breaks in between was a walk in the park for him? Just what had he gotten himself into?_

'I knew I was right in thinking I would regret training with Naruto.' _Sasuke thought in dismay as he took the blondes hand and was pulled to his feet._

"_What's the point?" he asked as they turned and began to walk towards a post in the center of the field. "We're just Genin, fresh out of the academy. What's the point in training so much this early on?"_

_Hearing this Naruto turned to Sasuke with a look of bewilderment etched on his face. "Did I just hear you right, teme?" he asked in shock. "Is the great Sasuke Uchiha questioning what kind of training he's getting?" he asked now with a mocking grin on his face._

_Sasuke huffed in annoyance, "don't get me wrong, dobe. I still need to get strong to avenge my clan, but I just want to know. Why train so hard this early?"_

_Naruto, despite quirking a questioning brow, turned to star off in space with a far off look. It was quiet in the training ground for several moments before he spoke. "Sasuke, you have to understand. There are people that are always stronger than you, and they will kill you given the chance. But there's more to it than that." He said not looking away from his thoughts._

"_What is it?" Sasuke asked curiously, wondering just what the blonde next to him was thinking about._

"_While there are always people that will be stronger than either of us, we can defeat them if we don't give up and are truly strong." Naruto said gaining a look of determination as he turned to face the raven haired one beside him._

"_Truly strong?" Sasuke questioned._

_Naruto nodded, "yes Sasuke, someone can beat a person stronger than them if they are truly strong. We train so we can be strong yes. But that alone isn't enough; it's the bonds one forms with their friends and loved ones. That is what true strength is, Sasuke. True strength is courage to put your life on the line for someone else, even if it means you will die while they live. True strength is the will to never give up, to never back down, even if the situation isn't what it seems to be, or you lose your life trying, to always protect those you hold dear from those that would harm them." Naruto finished, once again with a far off look._

_Sasuke would spend a great deal of time thinking about those words in the next few weeks._

'_**End'**_

'_To never give up, never back down even if it means I will die in the end, or the situation isn't as it seems; that is what true strength is. It isn't hatred like Itachi said. This is the way to true strength.' _Sasuke thought in determination as he started to push himself to his feet.

Haku stared in amazement as the Genin before her forced himself up despite his wounds. _'What is he doing? Can't he see it's over now? This is a ruse, so there's no need to continue the fight.' _She thought, raise a senbon so she could knock him out.

Sasuke watched as Haku prepared to launch the senbon in her hand. He watched as she let it fly towards him at a speed he couldn't see when suddenly everything started to slow around him and his eyes began to sting slightly as his vision became clearer. The senbon speeding towards him, once unable to be seen, was now clearly in sight heading straight for a pressure point near his shoulder.

Haku bit back a gasp as the injured Genin suddenly jumped to the right to dodge the senbon. She was unable to hold back another when Sasuke turned his head to face her. His eyes had changed. Gone were the pure obsidian orbs the boy had, now his eyes red blood red with two tomes in each of them. Sasuke had just awoken the famed Doujutsu of his clan; the Sharingan.

Forcing back her shock Haku smiled lightly, "well, well Uchiha-san, it seems we have something in common, for you also carry a Kekkei Genkai." She said.

Sasuke smirked despite his exhausted state, finally he had awakened his clan's blood-line, and it filled him with a sense of pride and happiness. "I-It seems so." He gasped, once again falling to his knees. Just the activation if the Sharingan had taken more chakra then he thought it would, and he had already been low on it before then. "But I will not g-give up, despite how tired I am." He said, raising his head so he could look at her.

Haku sighed sadly, she could tell she'd have to knock him out if she wanted the fight to end. "I see." She said, a hint of regret in her voice. "Then I must do what I must to make this look believable." She said creating a handful of ice needles.

"Bring it." Sasuke smirked, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge this blow, he was to low on chakra from his jutsu usage and activating the Sharingan and to weak from the blood loss from his wounds.

"Very well," Haku sighed, letting the needles fly, each aimed for one of Sasuke's pressure points.

Sasuke closed his eyes and readied himself for the trip to unconsciousness. _'To bad I'll miss out on all the fun.' _He thought jokingly as the needles closed in.

Just as they were about to hit a sudden crescent shaped flame shot through one of the mirrors, cutting it in half before the two pieces shattered, an intercepted the needles, melting them on contact as a voice cried out.

"Fire Style: Flaming Crescent Moon!"

Everyone on the bridge turned from their battles and gasped at what they saw.

There standing beside the giant gap in Haku's mirrors was Naruto Uzumaki, holding a sword made entirely out of fire.

Naruto stared at everyone in return with a frown on his face.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

* * *

Original Jutsu:

Lightning Style: Lightning Palm- Though it lacks the ability to pierce a target like many other lightning jutsu can, this technique is still extremely powerful and lethal depending on the amount of chakra put into it. Naruto initially created this to be a paralysis jutsu and later found that this technique is lethal if he adds to much chakra to it.

* * *

**Cut!**

**Okay everyone how was that? Did I do alright on the rescue and fight scenes? Please review and tell me what you think.**

**Okay again I'm sorry this took so long to get out, but I've been really busy lately with school work and doctor visits. So please no flames.**

**Shadow12 out!**


	16. Bridge Battle Final

**Okay everyone, sorry for the wait but I've been really busy with an unexpected move, and while I had most of this chapter written up when it started, I didn't have the amount of free time required to finish it up. The fact that I had a bit of writers block didn't help matters much since most of my writing time recently was on the newest chapter of Demigod Ninja.**

**So I hope you all like this chapter since it starts to bring future areas of the story into fruition.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden.**

* * *

_To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.- Ayn Rand._

* * *

_**-Last time-**_

_Sasuke closed his eyes and readied himself for the trip to unconsciousness. 'To bad I'll miss out on all the fun.' He thought jokingly as the needles closed in._

_Just as they were about to hit a sudden crescent shaped flame shot through one of the mirrors, cutting it in half before the two pieces shattered, and intercepted the needles, melting them on contact as a voice cried out._

"_Fire Style: Flaming Crescent Moon!"_

_Everyone on the bridge turned from their battles and gasped at what they saw. _

_There standing beside the giant gap in Haku's mirrors was Naruto Uzumaki, holding a sword made entirely out of fire._

_Naruto stared at everyone in return with a frown on his face._

"_Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"_

_**-Now-**_

******C********hapter 16: Bridge Battle Final.**

Everyone was completely silent as they stared at the blonde. Two of them not willing to believe that he had done what they had thought was impossible.

After a few minutes of this one of Naruto's eyebrows arched, "Well?" he asked. "What's going on? Why are you guys fighting?"

It remained silent for a moment before someone broke it, "About t-time you got here, d-dobe." Sasuke said with a tired smirk on his face as he struggled to hold onto his consciousness.

Naruto took a good look at his friend and could tell that he had a hard time against Haku, "Damn, teme." He whistled with a smirk, "You look like you've seen better days." He said as he let the fire sword dissipate.

"Feel like it too." Sasuke grunted trying to stand, but barely managing to get to his feet before he started falling. He would have impacted the ground had Naruto not appeared before him and caught him.

"Easy there Sasuke." Naruto said softly, supporting the young Uchiha heir as he turned his head to view his worn out face. That was when he caught sight of his friend's eyes, and he blinked in surprise,_ 'the Sharingan?' _he thought in bewilderment. It was quiet the shocker to find that his friend had once again awoken his blood-line. Though now that he thought about it, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise since the old Sasuke had done the same on this mission. But yet at the same time his awakening of the Sharingan had also been the catalyst of several events in the original timeline as well. _'Looks like I should start working on sensei's favoritism now before it even starts.'_

Naruto shook his head, it wasn't the time to think about a future that hadn't happened yet and never would if he had anything to say about it.

"Well," he said gaining a small grin in place of his smirk; "Congrats on awakening the Sharingan."

Sasuke smiled tiredly, "thanks." He said as his eyes closed and he went limp.

Naruto sighed and shook his head as he produced a sealess clone and hosted Sasuke onto its back.

"Get him to Anko and the others." He ordered it. The clone nodded and took off out of the gap in the ice mirrors, which closed as soon as it exited the dome.

The gap closing reminded him that he had a potential enemy still in the area. "I didn't expect you to have let him go, Haku." He said turning towards the girl.

Haku smiled at the blonde, "why wouldn't I?" she asked kindly, "we are, after all, allies."

Naruto allowed a smile to come to his face as the girl said this, so they weren't fight against them. Though that does leave the question of why they were fighting in the first place.

"Then why are we fighting against each other?" He asked, even though he already had a good idea.

"We're putting up a front to lure Gato out into the open." Haku explained. Naruto nodded he'd figured as much.

"I get it." He said, "But I guess that we've done enough talking." He said, getting into a stance Akane had taught him and once again forming the Fire Sword.

Haku nodded and formed more ice needles as she readied herself. "Indeed we have Naruto-kun." She said. "But I must compliment your jutsu, there's not many that can pierce my mirrors, let alone pack enough power to keep going afterwards." She said eyeing the flaming sword wirily.

Naruto smirked. "Thanks, I got this one from a very close friend of mine." He said, not giving any more information than needed. _'After all, can't let very many people know that I really learned this from the Kyuubi or that we're dating. There's no telling how bad that could be if word gets out.' _He thought, and heard Akane giggling in his mind.

"**Aww, Naru-kun." **She giggled, **"I didn't know you were so protective of little old me."**

"_Now's not the time, Akane-Chan. Besides why would you need protecting? You're the Kyuubi for Kami's sake!" _he thought to her.

"**Oh I don't know…maybe from Madara and the Akatsuki who want to separate us...I don't know what I'd do without you or Ten-chaaaan," **Akane said with a childish giggle at the end. Naruto found a small blush staining his cheeks; whenever he heard either Akane or Tenten laughit filled his heart with happiness.

"_No need to worry about them right now, Akane-Chan," _he assured, _"they won't be coming for awhile yet, so we have time to prepare for them. Besides, even if they move early, those bastards won't touch you!" _he declared determinedly.

Akane blushed lightly but her embarrassment quickly turned into concern when she saw senbon approaching fast, **"look out!"**

Akane's warning came just in time as Naruto managed to jump out of their path, twisting in the needles direction as he brought his sword around in a slash and launched a wave of fire at them, causing the ice needles to melt as they were engulfed.

The blonde landed and turned to face the mirror he had before. "You know, it's not nice to attack someone when they're thinking." He said with a small glare directed to the ice user.

Haku giggled into her hand, "and it's not nice to ignore a lady Naruto-kun." She retorted before launching another volley of needles, her reflections joining in this time.

Mentally cursing Naruto began to dodge the incoming senbon, using the fire sword as a makeshift shield and melting those he couldn't.

"Using the same trick you did to defeat Sasuke won't work on me." Naruto stated as he weaved in and out of the needles.

"But it already has." Haku stated calmly, no arrogance dotting her voice; it was like she was stating a common fact. "For you see, the moment someone steps into my mirrors they lose the battle."

"Oh really?" Naruto mused, raising a brow and smirking, "then I guess I'll have to take out your mirrors to end this." He stated as he created a clone

"Fire Style:" the original started as he and the clone turned to the closest mirror, bringing up the fire made blade.

"Wind Style:" the clone muttered, going through a string of hand seals.

"Flaming Crescent Moon! (1)" Naruto shouted, slashing the blade at it and unleashed a crescent shaped wave of flame, this one much larger than the previous one.

"Great Breakthrough!" the clone called out, letting lose a blast of wind from its mouth.

The moves combined as they surged towards the mirrors, the wind catching the fire and evolving it into a swirling, tornado of crimson red flames.

"Combination: Raging Torrent! (2)" Both the original and the clone shouted as the jutsu shot towards the mirrors.

"That's not going to work." Haku stated; remaining completely calm and collected as the jutsu flew through the air at her mirror, not even blinking an eye as the flames reached their target, completely encompassing it, and wrapping it in a swirling vortex of crimson. A minute later the flames died down and reveled…a perfectly floating mirror, still in place of where it was before with Haku's reflection standing inside it. The only signs that it had been hit by the fire technique were the slightly melted and misshaped corners and the slight distortion of Haku's image; it was damage that was quickly being repaired as new ice formed over the melted bits.

"I told you that it wouldn't work." Haku said calmly, inside however she wasn't as calm as she seemed. _ 'How the hell can he use a high level combination jutsu and still be a Genin? I'm lucky I reinforced my mirrors with chakra after he broke the first one, which should have been impossible in the first place; even then I had to use more than anticipated to prevent the same from happening again. Had the technique been any stronger it would have completely incinerated my mirror.' _She thought as a bead of sweat rolled down her face, her breathing heavier than it had been before.

Naruto smirked as his clone dispelled, "I didn't expect it to." He said. "After all your ice is forged from your chakra, allowing you to turn the water in the air around you to ice. Though you can do that with just your chakra, I'm guessing you prefer to use a nearby water source so you can save chakra, right?" he asked, Haku nodded, quirking a brow at how he knew about her bloodline. "And judging from your worn out appearance it takes you a large amount of chakra to maintain this jutsu for an extended period of time, even if it is your bloodline." again Haku nodded.

Naruto's smirk widened before he disappeared. Haku blinked before sensing an incoming attack and leapt into one of her other mirrors; the one she just vacated was sliced in half.

'_How was he able to slip through my mirrors and get behind me?' _Haku thought in shock as Naruto reappeared in the center of the now incomplete ice dome.

"That, Haku," Naruto said turning to face her, further surprising the girl that he knew where her real self was. "Is the advantage I have over you, my chakra reserves are much larger, and you'll be hard pressed to get me to run low on it." He said, _'though, I can understand why you warned me against using the fire sword for so long Akane-Chan. I'm starting to feel the wear on my reserves.' _Naruto thought, feeling how low his chakra was starting to get. If he had to guess Naruto would say he had used roughly a third of his chakra; usually it wouldn't be that much of a problem for him, having a chakra level that surpassed the Hokage's, but using a high powered combination jutsu and keeping a B-ranked jutsu going continuously took their toll one someone, immense reserves or not.

Akane sighed as she watched through the seal; Naruto really had no idea how much chakra the technique needed and testing it in a battle was not the place to find out. **"I told you Naruto-kun." **She said. **"Not to mention the fact that you fired off an A-ranked combination jutsu on top of that. A jutsu that is, if I may remind you, way more taxing on your chakra than the Fire Sword and NOT COMPLETE YET?" **she shouted the last part in irritation. The Raging Torrent was something that had yet to be complete and Naruto had seen fit to go ahead and use it. Not that she could fault him on it; he'd used a lot less chakra than was required to keep it from going out of control, even if it had still used a fair amount.

Naruto winced as his ears rang from Akane's shout; even when she was in the mindscape it still hurt when she shouted. _'I know it's not finished yet Aka-Chan, but you gotta admit it was pretty cool seeing what it'll look like when it is.' _He thought to the vixen, trying to calm her down.

"**While I'll admit it was cool, it still doesn't amount to the fact you could have lost control of it. Hell you would have had it not stopped when it did. And you know what happens when you lose control of it."**Akane reprimanded, causing Naruto to sigh and shift his attention back to Haku when she spoke; the broken mirror reforming again.

"Be that as it may Naruto-kun, large chakra reserves mean nothing if you can't beat your opponent in speed." Haku stated, creating more ice senbon and holding them between her fingers, making them look like claws, "and now I believe it's my turn, since you've already proved you can break my mirrors and counter my needles I'll try something different; Ice Style: Ice Flash!(3)"

As soon as she shouted those words, all of Haku's reflections, as well as the girl herself, disappeared from the mirrors.

'_**With Kakashi and Zabuza'**_

Zabuza gave off a low whistle when he heard Haku call out the name of her technique. "Well Kakashi," he said, turning his head away from his pseudo-enemy as they took time away from their fight to watch their students. "That blonde brat of yours is quiet impressive. To be able to get behind Haku is remarkable; even I have a hard time doing that. Though, breaking her mirrors is something no one, not even me, has been able to do. Just what have you been teaching him?" he asked in wonder.

Kakashi chuckled lightly, his gaze also turning to the dome. "I haven't really taught Naruto much." He admitted, drawing a confused look from Zabuza. "All I've ever really done is given him advice when he asked for it. Other than that he prefers to train on his own." Kakashi clarified jumping away from the swordsman and throwing a kunai.

"Doesn't that go against Konoha regulations?" Zabuza asked as he blocked the knife with his sword. "I've heard you guys focus on team work. Isn't the pipsqueak going against that by training on his own? I mean even if you allow it, doesn't he have to work with a team on most missions?"

Kakashi sighed, Zabuza did have a point, what Naruto was doing could be seen as going against what the leaf taught its ninja. Though he knew Naruto hadn't been training alone, Kakashi had checked in on his student once and saw him working with Sasuke, and another time with that bun-haired girl from Gai's team, so it wasn't like he was going entirely against the Konoha motto.

"In a way it is." Kakashi said. But he started to explain when he saw Zabuza start to speak. "But it's not entirely against the village's philosophy. You see Naruto, while he prefers to do his own training, usually has a partner. At times I've seen him training with Sasuke and at others a girl from last year's graduating class. Either way, as long as he trains with someone, he's still learning to work with others." He said. "But he only does so after team practice. So as long as he doesn't start skipping the team's training sessions I don't really have a problem with it."

Zabuza nodded at Kakashi's logic, the kid had some really amazing skills, and if this was all self taught, then he couldn't wait to see what he'd be capable of with a proper teacher. Especially since Zabuza could see a few, gapping flaws in Naruto's stance when he used that flaming sword of his. While Naruto's stance was impressive, the flaws Zabuza saw could ultimately get the boy into trouble given the right opponent, and that was something Zabuza would not allow, he owed the kid that much at least.

Zabuza smirked as he went in for another slash at Kakashi's midsection; oh yes, choosing to join Konoha was a very good decision.

'_**Back with Naruto'**_

Naruto grunted in pain as four slashes appeared on his arm. _'Damn it!' _ He thought in frustration before he was suddenly impacted by a hard force and jerked in the direction of the attack. _'I forgot Haku could use this technique.'_ He focused his attention on the mirror in front of him to see Haku standing inside it, before she disappeared again and a new pair of slashes formed on the blonde Jinchuriki's form, causing him to lose his focus on the Fire Sword, which exploded in a burst of flames.

'_Damn it.' _The blonde thought again, grabbing his singed hand in pain as more slash marks appeared all over his form, each in a different direction and angle than the last as Haku appeared and disappeared in a different mirror each time in rapid succession.

There was no time to dodge, to block, counter or move between the strikes. Naruto cried out in pain as he felt the slashes continue. He didn't bother to protect his vitals since he knew Haku wasn't aiming for them this time around, it still hurt like hell though.

The barrage continued for several more minutes before Haku finally stopped, coming to rest in the mirror in front of him. "You're quiet durable Naruto-kun." She commented with a frown. For some reason it pained her to hurt the blonde as much as she had, she didn't know why but it felt like her heart was being torn in half at the very thought. "Most people would have alre-"

"Would have already been unconscious due to the number of injuries and blood loss," Naruto interrupted with a snort and spat out a glob of blood. "Yeah I've heard all this before." He said, already feeling his wounds heal due to Akane's chakra working alongside his own, already impressive healing factor. Another benefit he'd discovered about his Uzumaki genes, his wounds healed at an accelerated rate, even without Akane's youki.

"And might I ask where you've heard this before?" Haku inquired politely, trying to delay hurting him again.

"Maybe later," Naruto said with a smirk before he went up in smoke.

Haku's eyes widened in surprise, _'a clone!'_ she thought in alarm, just before she sensed a nearby chakra spike and jumped out of her mirror.

However, Haku's escape was a moment to late as a shout of "Rasengan!" rang through the area and a ball of glowing blue chakra was thrust into the back of the mirror just as she was making her jump, shattering it instantly and colliding into her back.

"Gaahh!" she cried as the chakra ball ground into her back, ripping through the back of her kimono and sending her flying through the mirror before her. The mirror shattered as its creator impacted it, doing nothing to slow the girl down as she flew through it.

She hit the ground and skid to a halt, bouncing a few times as she slowly came to a stop.

Haku groaned in pain, blinking the stars out of her eyes before trying to sit up, only to find that she was pinned and a flaming sword point was hovering just above her neck. Looking past the sword's blade Haku saw Naruto standing there, a good number of wounds on his person to show that he had replaced himself with his clone either during or after her attack.

"W-When did you substitute with your clone?" Haku asked with a pained groan.

Naruto panted a bit, "Right after you stopped your attack." He informed. "Now I know this is only supposed to be a ruse, but will you surrender?" He asked, taking on a threatening look for the sake of the ruse.

A small smile took root on Haku's face as she looked at the blonde standing above her, she could tell with this one fight alone, that he had the ability to go far in the world. He was already powerful and had the right goals and ideals. And for some reason, some unexplainable reason, she knew she'd be beside him the whole way.

Haku nodded, her smile growing and her eyes drooping in exhaustion, "very well, Naruto-kun. I surrender." She whispered her eyes fully closing as she surrendered herself to blissful unconsciousness.

Naruto smiled tiredly as he knelt down and picked the ice user up bridal style and chuckled as he felt Haku unconsciously snuggle closer to him as he began making his way over to where Anko and Sakura were guarding Tazuna.

He came to a dead stop when the sound of clapping caught his and everyone else's attention. Naruto's eyes narrowed and he allowed a growl to escape his lips at the memory the sound brought up as he turned towards the source.

'_**With Kakashi and Zabuza a few moments earlier'**_

"I don't believe it." Zabuza said in shocked disbelief, his eyes wide and his sword hanging forgotten by his side as he stared at the blonde making his way over to the purple haired woman and the others. "He was actually able to beat Haku?"

Kakashi chuckled again as he took the opening Zabuza had left him and took out a scroll from one of his vest pockets. "Sorry about that, but Naruto is obviously the stronger of our students." He said as he cut his finger on a kunai and whipped the blood on the scroll's seal. "And now it's my turn!" he said forming a hand seal and holding the scroll between his thumbs. "Summoning: Earth Style: Fanged Pursuit jutsu!" he shouted slamming the scroll down on the ground.

Though he may have been able to hear the man, and be able to tell that he was relatively close by the sound of his voice; Kakashi was unable to see Zabuza, and with the mist blocking out his Sharingan's ability to predict incoming strikes. But what Zabuza didn't know was that with one of the few strikes Kakashi been able to get in he'd been marked with a nit of his blood. This was what made Kakashi so confident on winning, and why he'd resorted to using a jutsu he usually kept in reserve.

Almost immediately on impact lines of summoning kanji streamed out of the scroll and into the ground.

Zabuza, having been put on guard when Kakashi had acted, raised a brow. "Was that supposed to do something?" he asked, though stayed at the ready should the copy ninja be up to something.

Kakashi sent a glare at his enemy turned ally, "Don't underestimate me, Zabuza," he said. "For you see, just like me you have figured out the secret to my Sharingan, I have figured out the weakness to your Hidden Mist Jutsu." He said with a hint of a smirk on his face under his mask.

Suddenly, there was the sound of cracking earth beneath Zabuza's feet, eyes widening the Demon of the Mist made to jump away, but he got no more than an inch away from his spot when the head of a large dog burst out of the bridge, followed quickly by its body and several other, smaller dogs; each managing to sink there fangs into a part of Zabuza's body as they emerged.

"H-How?" Zabuza asked in shock. He couldn't believe he'd been beat, and even though the fight had only been a ruse he still would have preferred to win.

As Kakashi drew near he brought a kunai from his pouch, "like I said, Zabuza. I figured out the fault in your jutsu. You rely too heavily on its ability to conceal you from sight and while the jutsu blocked my Sharingan, it can't block the scent someone produces. I simply used my nose to find you as did my hounds." Kakashi explained as he reached the man and placed the kunai against his neck.

"Now, as Naruto asked your student," Kakashi said, glaring into the other mask wearer's eyes, "will you surrender? Or are you going back on the deal?"

Zabuza stared at the silver haired nin before him. While the fight may have been a farce to lure Gato out, he'd learned quite a bit about his new ally and could definitely tell he'd made the right choice to join them. Not for his sake but for Haku's.

He smirked beneath his mask, but before he could say anything both the ninjas attention were drawn to a clapping sound at the other end of the bridge.

Turning to investigate the source, a low growl resonated from Zabuza's throat when he saw who it was.

* * *

'_**With Akane'**_

Akane's brows nit together as she looked over those before her, and she had to admit, while she was happy to see them, she was not impressed with what she saw.

Due to being sealed for the last hundred years or so, and due to still being under the effects of Madara-teme's Genjutsu the last time around, Akane and her sisters had lost touch. Even when she had been sealed inside Mito and Kushina they had still met at least once a year using their shared connection. But since she had been sealed into newest container and not to mention boyfriend, they had been out of contact and had not communicated much.

However, that had changed after Akane had worked the time travel jutsu used to send her, Naruto and Tenten back in time and was intent on seeing what she had missed out on and warning her sisters of the dangers to come.

That had been her initial plan, and she had made relative success in contacting several of her sisters; Chomei, the seven tails, and Matatabi, the two tails, more so than the others. That had changed though once she had called a council of all her siblings, being the Kyuubi and having authority to do it, she had reached out and called them all to the mindscape they all shared when they were together.

However, with the distance of each Biju was from her location and the events outside the seal severing as a distraction to her, it had not been easy.

And when she had appeared in the void with her sisters, she had taken the liberty to inspect each and every one of their states.

Gyuki, being the strongest after her with eight tails, was staring at her with a look of bewilderment. Her tails having fallen flat behind her to reflect her surprise, though when Akane looked into her eyes she could see the happy gleam in them. Akane sent her a small smile and a nod when she met her eyes before moving down the line.

Chomei, while having no eyes in her Biju form, had reverted back to her human state much like Akane had to attend the meeting. She looked much like Akane did as a human, but there were several, notable, differences. Her hair, much like her host's, was a light green and shorten than Akane's own; going down to her ears rather than her shoulders, and her face was slightly more angular than Akane's, though held the same kind smile. And while her dark green kimono covered them to an extent, Chomei's breasts where larger than Akane's, a small D-cup, but still larger by a sizable amount, and Chomei's skin was a fair darker than Akane's.

Akane smiled brightly at her little sister which was instantly returned, the younger Biju's slited red eyes almost closing with due to how large the smile was.

Akane then turned her attention down the line to Saiken, the six tails, and even though the two got along most of the time, this was where her problems started. The large slug was staring at her with something akin to a mixture of surprise and suspicion. Akane sighed and shook her head; Saiken was easy enough to get along with, unless you picked on her or said something about her being slimy. But unlike either Gyuki or Chomei, she had been one of the first to question Akane's position as the strongest, though had been the first to apologize for that when Akane had put her in her place. Let it be known that while Akane was generally kind in nature, she did not like to be called weak nor have her decisions questioned.

Akane shook her head and moved on to Kokuo; she had to hold back a snicker. Don't get her wrong, she loved her sisters and the Biju was powerful in her own right, but Kokuo was a bit of a funny topic to the others due to her strange demonic form; a mixture of a horse and dolphin was just laughable. Though if the half-horse half-dolphin hybrid ever caught any of the others laughing about it she be sure to use all five the elements she commanded to prove she was not to be laughed at, it only happened once, but since then there had been no jokes about it.

But currently, Kokuo was staring at her like all the others; though, unlike them, her expression was unreadable. There was no light in her eyes to show she was either happy or unhappy, it was just a blank lifeless stare. This had Akane worried, even if Kokuo had always been a bit quiet, she had always had the spark of life in her eyes and was outgoing when she choose to be. But this, this was not what she expected to find when they met up again.

Shaking her head to clear it of her worry, Akane moved to look at the four tailed monkey that went by the name Son Goku, and just like she had with Saiken, the eldest of the nine had to hold back a snicker. Goku had always been a bit of a prankster only out done by Akane and Naruto, the prank king himself. Some of the things that the monkey had done after first being created had sent the others into fits of hysteria, and even more so when the two had pulled pranks together.

Though, at the moment, those eyes of the monkey towering over her held no hint of the prankster in them. Instead it showed what most of the others held; surprised happiness.

Directing a smile at the larger form of her four tailed sister, Akane moved on to the next of her family line and had to bite back a snort of disgust.

Isobu, the three tailed turtle, was the most disliked in the family and held an equal dislike to those of them with a greater number of tails then her. This was based mostly on her belief that their strengths where based on the number of tails they had, and only having three herself, Isobu hardly talked to those of her family that had more than her, while she saw the others as below her due to them only having one and two tails respectively, and the sentiments weren't much better from them to her. Oh she could be civil alright and surprisingly insightful when the time called for it, but any other time and she preferred to be on her own. And it was her who had first called Akane's position in the family to question much to Akane's disappointment, and her own embarrassment and shame once Akane had demonstrated her power and put her in her place.

The large turtle's Gaze held nothing but contempt at the eldest of the family; Akane didn't even spar her a second glance as she turned her gaze to one of her favorite sisters.

Matatabi, the two tailed fire cat, much like Chomei and herself had chosen to appear in her human form for the meeting. Her long, blue hair cascaded down to the girl's mid back, following the hair Akane saw a face that, again, resembled her own, but was more angular than her own, much like Chomei's. The nose was the same, as was the fact that she had two cat ears poking out from her hair. And much like Chomei, Matatabi's breasts were bigger than Akane' own, though smaller than what the beetles was, maybe a large C-cup at most.

Akane felt a bit of jealously when she thought that two of her sisters had a larger bust size than her, but she shrugged it off, she had a man now and she knew that he liked what he had saw, brief as it had been, so Akane felt no reason to feel jealous of her sisters. Though their rubbing that particular fact in her face wasn't very well appreciated.

And much like her older sister, Matatabi's mismatched, though slited, eyes glowed with happiness and she was smiling so largely that they were almost closed. Her twin flaming tails swinging behind her to express the feeling.

Smiling back at Matatabi Akane turned her attention to her weakest and youngest sister, and frowned. There was something different about the youngest of the group, but she couldn't place her finger on it.

The way Shukaku stared at her with that crazed look was different than what she remembered from the behavior. Don't get her wrong the happiness was there, buried deep in the yellow eyes of her sister, but it was over powered by the gleam of insanity Shukaku held in her eyes. Being the youngest if the group Shukaku often lived in all of her sister's shadows, weather it was from the myths or the fact that they were all far more powerful then she was, and although reluctant to admit it, was often jealous of them.

Akane sighed as her eyebrows knitted together again. She was definitely not impressed with what she saw of her sisters. Matatabi, Chomei, and Gyuki being the exceptions.

She shook her head to clear it of all thoughts and decided to get the meeting started.

"Hello sisters, it's been a while."

* * *

**1.) It's the first move that Akane taught Naruto after he learned to properly wield the Fire Sword. To use it he channels his chakra through the blade and slashes it at his target, unleashing a crescent shaped wave of flames that, given how strong he makes them, can possibly burn through anything.**

**2.) The first in a rather long line of combination jutsu Naruto and the girls intend to make, while incomplete it is seen to be rather strong in the fact that it melted Haku's ice mirrors a small amount. Also it has a tendency to go out of control as neither Naruto, or Tenten have the proper amount of chakra control to prevent it. The only reason it didn't was because Naruto and his clone used far less chakra then was required and made a miniature of what the technique would be like, though it was still rather taxing on the reserves. **

**3.) I'm not really sure if that supper speed technique Haku uses is named as such since it has been a while since I actually saw the bridge battle or read it in the manga, but I needed to call it something, and you gotta admit, it fits the jutsu.**

* * *

**Cut!**

**Okay then everyone, I'm sorry for the wait between the chapters but like I said before, my parents pulled a sudden move on me and my siblings so we've been pretty busy getting all our stuff packed and moved into the new place.**

**Please review and for the love of all things pure, DO NOT flame me for how bad you think the fights might be, any and all of them will be swiftly ignored and deleted.**


	17. Wave Final

**Greetings my readers, I'd like to apologize for the wait between chapters but between starting G.E.D. classes and searching for a job (again) I haven't had as much time to work on my stories as I'd like.**

**But anyway, thank you all for the reviews on the last chapter. And so without further ado: To the story!**

**Disclaimer: I have never owned, and never will own, Naruto or any of the related franchises/series.**

* * *

_"A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it." -Mary Karr, The Lairs' Club_

* * *

**Chapter 17: Wave final.**

"Hello sisters, it's been awhile."

Any reaction Akane was expecting from her sisters after her greeting was not what she got. Instead of yells of surprise and other things like that from Gyuki (eight-tails), Saiken (six tails), Kokuo (five-tails), and Shukaku, and yells of joy from Chomei and Matatabi, or maybe an insult directed at her from Isobu like the turtle would have usually done. It was pin drop silence in the white space of the shared mindscape of the Biju.

As she stared at her sisters, Akane had to stave off the urge to face palm, _'talk about a cold response.' _She thought, a small bead of sweat forming on the back of her head.

Finally, after several moments of eerie silence between the nine, it was Gyuki who finally managed to find her voice.

"**A-Akane-Oneesama? W-Wha...how?"** she stuttered in the deep voice that was characteristic of all giant beings; she wasn't sure how to respond after such a surprise.

Akane smiled kindly at her and turned to the others who had remained silent, "I know my presence here is a surprise to some of you, and a displeasure to others," she said, her eyes locking onto Isobu at the last bit.

The turtle only sneered at Akane's smaller form.

"And I know most of you are wondering why I called this meeting after such a long silence on my part." Akane continued, ignoring the sneer and returning her gaze to the rest of her family. "But I have called you all here for a reason, a w-"

"**Yes,"** Isobu called, breaking her silence and interrupting Akane while she was at it. **"Tell us why you have called us all together after so long of an absence, Nee-**_**Sama**_**."** She spoke with a condescending voice, **"I was beginning to think you had forgotten about the rest of us."**

Akane turned a glare on the three tails, but just as she opened her mouth to retort someone else spoke up.

"Oh, give it up, Isobu," Chomei said, her usually soft voice sounding irritated as she crossed her arms and glared up at the one-eyed turtle. "We get that you don't like anyone of us, and we haven't liked you since that little temper-tantrum you had led you to having one eye. So just come off your high horse and just let the woman speak!" she said as her eyes began to glow in warning.

Isobu glared at the seven tails for some time, but once the single tail sprouting from Chomei's backside began to swish back and forth turned her gaze back to Akane.

Akane nodded at her green haired sister in thanks. It wasn't often Chomei threatened one of her sisters, but when she did it often resulted the way it just did. The little bug certainly knew how to carry her own weight; that much was for sure.

"Thank you, Imouto," Akane smiled, Chomei nodded back, her bright smile back in place.

Shaking her head, Akane turned and readdressed the others, "like I was saying," she began again. "I have called you all here to deliver a warning to you." As soon as she said this most of the other's gazes turned curious. It wasn't often the strongest of them delivered a warning. Kokuo's gaze however, remained neutral, completely devoid of emotion.

Akane continued, Kokuo's lack of reaction bringing a bit of concern to her.

"My sisters, we are about to enter a power struggle. A struggle so great it will require us to set aside our differences and work together." Akane explained in a voice that left no room for argument.

**"What!?"** Gyuki exclaimed in disbelief. **"B-But Nee-Sama, what could be so threatening to us that it would require us to fight together?"** She asked and Akane sighed, out of all of them Gyuki was the most willing to work together, believing in the strength in numbers, but when it came to the other Biju ...well, she'd seen what happens when her sisters fought.

"Gyuki," Akane said calmly, trying to reign in the urge to start pulling out her hair in frustration, but whatever she was going to say next was drount out by Isobu's shout.

**"Preposterous!"** She exclaimed angrily, **"there is no force within the nine circles of hell that can make me-" **

She was cut off when a flaming blue tail suddenly batted her across the head.

Following the tail, Akane saw that Matatabi had changed back into her beast form, that being a giant cat covered in blue flames, and used one of her twin tails to hit Isobu's head.

**"You stupid, insufferable, miserable turtle!"** She shouted.

**"You dare touch me!?"** Isobu shouted back in outrage as she picked herself up, her tails thrashing in anger as she prepared for a possible fight.

**"Yes I dare!"** Matatabi retorted, raising her tails again in a threatening manner. **"And I will continue to do so until you shut up and listen to Akane!"** She said furiously before a blue light covered her. When it cleared it showed Matatabi once again in her human form, her arms crossed beneath her bust and her mismatched eyes glaring up at her older sister. "Now get down here so we can hear Akane out in a _civilized_ manner."

"**N**-**Never**!" Isobu grunted under the pressure of Matatabi's glare.

"Actually," Akane spoke up, her arms crossed and an eyebrow twitching in annoyance at yet another interruption. "That sounds like an excellent idea and I think it would be helpful if we were all in our human forms. That way we are all on _equal_ standings." She said smiling up at the others, but the glare that accompanied it and directed at Isobu dared them to argue against her.

Gyuki was the first to nod and become surrounded by a bright light.

It cleared to show a girl, who was almost the mirrored image of Akane, only differences being in the hair and eye colors. Gyuki's hair was jet-black, and her eyes were a light shade of pink with slitted black pupils. She was wearing a light pink kimono patterned with grey birds across it. Her eight tails, similar to an octopus' tentacles, swayed excitedly behind her.

This seemed to be the starting signal, because the area was suddenly bathed in bright lights as each of the remaining Biju, besides Isobu, transformed.

The lights cleared to show three other women, each looking remarkably similar to the other, but each with distinctly different features discerning them.

"And then there was one," Goku spoke, brushing her long, light red hair out of her green eyes and crossing her arms as she turned to Isobu, who remained in her turtle form. Goku was wearing a tight fitting pair of dark shorts and a black top that stopped just above her navel and had fish net expanding from there to meet her shorts. (In short, imagine Fu's outfit, but in darker colors.)

"Y-Yes, Isobu," came a quivering voice from Shukaku. "S-Surely your h-human f-form can't be as b-bad as y-you are n-now." Turning her head, Akane frowned at her youngest sister.

Gone was the once confident feeling that had radiated from Shukaku the last time they had met. Now there was a feeling of uncertainty hinted with insanity. The crazed look from before was still in the one-tails' yellow, diamond pupil eyes, but it was more controlled then before. Shukaku was usually a tan and beautiful looking girl when she was in her human form, but now she had a pail sickly look about her, and she was shivering for some reason, even though she wore a thick cloak that was usually worn in the desert regions she inhabited. Her dark brown hair, something she usually kept in a neat bun, was undone and frazzled, almost like she had just gotten out of bed and her tail was slumped behind her in a tired manor.

There was something wrong with Shukaku and as much as Akane wanted to help her, she couldn't right now; she had to tell them of the danger they were in.

She turned back to Isobu to see her glaring at all the others as they glared in return.

Seeing it was a hopeless battle, Isobu's glare worsened, "Fine!" She snapped, and became bathed in sea green light. When it cleared it showed a woman with purple waist length hair tied in a long braid, and had a light green flower in her locks. Isobu was dressed far less conservatively then what the others were. Instead of being dressed in a kimono or something similar, she wore a two piece, purple and green, swim suit. Its top was barely big enough to cover her sizable bust, and Isobu's left eye was closed and a scar ran down the length of the eye lid. Her other eye, a dark red in color, was glaring at them all with the utmost hate.

"There!" She snapped, her voice, much like the others' was soft an angelic, but hard in her anger. "I've done what you all wanted, so can we get to why we were called now?" She asked, diverting her gaze as a light shade of pink dusted her cheeks.

"Yes, quite." A new, dead sounding voice came. When she spoke up everyone turned to see that it was Kokuo, still staring into the distance with an emotionless expression.

Kokuo had a similar appearance to the others but her body was leaner and meant more for speed than anything else. Her hair was a pale shade of grey, and her eyes were a very light shade of blue and held a normal round purple rather than a slitted one like her siblings.

Akane found herself frowning again at one of her sisters, and wondered what the Rikudo Sennin would say if he were to see the beings he created now.

'_Probably crack a joke about how much we've all grown up before turning around and saying how disappointed he is with us.'_ She thought before shaking her head.

"Yes, well, as I was saying." She began again, "a great threat is about to reveal itself to the Elemental Nations. A threat so great that it will bring the shinobi villages to the very knees they stand on if its goals are achieved. A threat my host and myself have survived, and turned back the clock to stop!"

At Akane's exclamation there was a collective outburst from her sisters.

"What?"

"Nee-Sama, you can't be serious! To use that technique?"

"How dare you show yourself after doing what we vowed never to do!"

"Akane you didn't. Please tell me you didn't!"

"N-Nee-S-Sama how could y-you?"

There was a sudden burst of killing intent that shut them up. All of the sisters, even the ever silent Saiken and emotionless Kokuo, began to sweat against the Ki Akane was unleashing on them.

Akane regarded her family with a scathing look, "Yes I used 'that' technique, the very one we swore to never use." She admitted sternly. "But if you remember when we took that oath we only agreed to not use the technique if we could find a way to fix the situation." She said with another glare directed at her siblings, Isobu in particular.

"I used the technique knowing what I was doing and that there was no other choice." Here she stopped and glared at Isobu again. "And I dare show myself so that I can warn your sorry ass! For it is us they are after! It is us they will use to bring the villages to their knees! It is us they plan on extracting from our hosts and using to revive the Jubi!"

* * *

Naruto felt his anger spiking at the one he saw standing at the other end of the bridge.

Gato, major shipping magnate, and one of the black market's major suppliers/buyers, stood there, clapping as he gleefully took in Zabuza and Haku's defeated forms, a large crowd of bandits standing right behind him.

"Gato," he heard Zabuza growl in the same way he did in the previous timeline. "What are you doing here?"

Gato smirked at the man who was still at the end of Kakashi's kunai, "Well, you see, Zabuza." The midget of a man said smugly, "There's been a slight change in plans. If I recall, the original plan was for you to kill the bridge builder and then I pay you. And since you don't seem to have accomplished that, the new plan goes something like this: since you and the Konoha shinobi are all tired out, my men here," here gave a vague wave over his shoulder to indicate the large band of thugs behind him, "will finish you all off and then I collect your rather impressive bounty. I earn more money, my friends here get paid, and you die." Gato finished smugly.

Zabuza played his part well, his eyes widened and what could be seen of his face become confused "What?" He asked growling murderously, though mentally he was smirking.

_'Come on you little shit, give me one more reason to wipe you off the face of the earth.'_

Gato did just that a moment later when he turned to the thugs behind him, "bring me this baby demon's head when you're through with them, and..." he paused and leered at Anko and the unconscious Haku who was still in Naruto's arms. "...bring me the purple haired one, and that ice bitch! I still need to repay her for what she did to my arm and I hear there's a lot of business opportunity for women with oddly colored hair."

The thugs roared in approval and readied their weapons, but their charge was stopped before it even began when a heavy feeling crashed into the area. Slowly, ever so slowly, everyone turned to see both Naruto and Zabuza with their heads bowed and their eyes glowing from the shadows of their hair.

Zabuza was glowing mad, the no good scoundrel he had been working for up until the day before had just threatened to rape Haku, the one he had taken in as a tool, but had come to see as a daughter! He was not about to let that go unpunished!

But just as he was reaching for his sword, an even heavier feeling settled atop his own. Looking over, he saw that the blonde, no, Naruto had his head lowered as well and his eyes absolutely glowing with power, they were turning colors, blue flickering to red and back again.

He gulped; this kid had way more power than he had initially given him credit for. And he could tell he was angry at Gato, not just for what he'd just threatened to do, but something completely different, and Zabuza had no idea what it was. Though, he counted himself lucky that it was Gato on the receiving end of all that anger instead of him.

Naruto was mad, no scratch that, he was furious! Just seeing the little midget again was enough to make him angry, but hearing him say what he was planning to do not only his comrade, Anko, but to Haku who had done nothing other than stand up to him, was more than enough to send him over the edge and he begin drawing on Akane's chakra. He didn't know where his anger was coming from and that scared him slightly, but he had a reason to be angry and this new anger was merely feeding into it.

By now, enough of the demonic chakra had built up in his system that one could see a faint red glow around him and even more was about to become visible when Naruto felt a soft hand land on his whiskered cheek.

That was enough of a sock to his system to drive out the anger and Akane's chakra; he looked down into Haku's half-lidded eyes. The girl had a small smile on her tired face, something that brought a faint blush to Naruto's cheeks.

She leaned up enough to press her lips against his cheek and smiled again when she pulled back, "Give 'em hell, Naruto-kun." She whispered before her eyes closed again and she went limp, once again blissfully unconscious.

"With pleasure, Haku-Chan," He whispered back to her before turning to Anko and handing Haku to her. "Take care of her Anko-sensei." He told her, glancing into her eyes.

Anko's breath caught in her throat at the serious look in the blonde's eyes. She saw just how much care he held for the girl in those azure eyes of his, and while she was a little jealous that he didn't have all that directed at her, she felt a sense of satisfaction that there was an equal amount of it for her. Anko nodded to show she'd make sure nothing happened to the girl, "Sure thing, Gaki."

Naruto nodded with a smirk before turning to Zabuza, "hey, No Brows." He called to the man.

An invisible eyebrow twitching, Zabuza turned to address the blonde, "what is it kid?"

"Can I count on you to back me up if I need it?" He asked, arching brow.

Zabuza smirked in return as Kakashi's hounds released him, "you got it brat." He said, grasping the hilt of his sword and swinging it in front of him a few times.

Naruto grinned fierily and brought his hands together in a sword holding grip.

He chuckled darkly as the Fire Sword formed once more in his hands, and charged into the crowd of frozen thugs. Screams of fear and pain began ringing out as soon as the blonde began to slash the bandits into pieces.

Zabuza turned to Kakashi, "that's a hell of a kid you got there Hatake." He stated; Kakashi nodded as he stared at the carnage Naruto was unleashing on the thugs. He could only watch as his sensei's son sliced them to bits.

* * *

The Biju could only stare at their oldest sister in something akin to fear as Akane calmed herself down from the worked up state she'd put herself in during her rant.

None of them were willing to believe what they had just heard. None of them wanted to believe that they were in any danger of being extracted from their hosts and being forced to become one with the vial ten-tails again. But if it was true then they would have to be on watch, not only for their own safety but that of their Jinchuriki's too.

"Who are _they_?" Asked a voice that had been quiet up till now. Akane looked over to the only member of the group who had not spoken the entire time they'd been in the shared mindscape, Saiken.

The slug turned human looked much like her sisters, but instead of fair or tan skin like many of them had, hers was a pasty white, something she was unable to prevent due to being the six tailed slug. Her cloths consisted of a black kimono dotted with red sparks (something that made her skin look even whiter than normal), which was open some to give a good view of the valley between her large breasts (again, something that irritated Akane). Her hair was a pale shade of blue and her eyes were a light yellow in color and her six tails lazily swaying behind her.

Akane sighed in relief, she was happy to know someone was showing concern about the current situation. "The _'they'_ I referred to are a group of S-ranked missing-nin, each are highly powerful and extremely skilled in their various arts. They were able to capture most of us in the previous time line, my own host was just barely escaped being captured before the group started the fourth shinobi world war." She explained with a serious look on her face.

Stunned silence met Akane at the end of her explanation, they knew now just how much of a threat this group could be, but they all had questions that needed to be answered before they decided what to do.

"What is the name of this group?" Saiken asked; her voice not quite as even as it had been before.

"It's Akatsuki."

The answer came not from Akane, but Shukaku, who was now rubbing at her head, as if it were in pain.

"Imouto?" Akane asked, unsure as to how this timeline's Shukaku could have knowledge of a group that had yet to make an appearance. "How did you know this?"

"I-I'm unsure," Shukaku responded, continuing to rub her head. "But my h-host has had that n-name running around in her h-head for the last m-month or so and she has been t-training more often t-too. T-That is not s-something G-Gaia does a lot of, s-she usually p-prefers to l-let my sand do the f-fighting for her." She said, her stutter having gotten somewhat better since it had been when she first arrived but her appearance kept getting paler and she looked to be fighting to stay on her legs.

Akane thought for a moment before she smirked, if what was happening with Gaia was what she thought it was then it had made hers, Tenten's, and Naruto's workload a lot lighter. She'd have to see the girl in person to make sure though.

"Well, as Imouto said, the group in concern is named Akatsuki," Akane said coming out of her thoughts and getting back to the matter at hand. "It consists of nine missing-nin, all of them highly trained and specialized. A tenth member runs the group from the shadows and was just barely defeated by my host in the war."

"You've mentioned your host several times now," Isobu commented, crossing her arms and frowning, "but we have yet to actually hear his or her name."

Akane smirked and turned to Shukaku who looked confused as to why she was looking to her. "Would you like to answer? My host met yours on more than one occasion in the previous timeline, and if my assumption is right then Gaia should know his name."

Shukaku looked confused for a moment before a name came to her mind, "N-Naruto U-Uzumaki, that's your host's n-name."

Akane nodded with a smirk, her theory having just been proven, and turned her attention to the rest of the curiously watching group.

"Yes, my host's name is Naruto Uzumaki." She said waving her hand and producing an image of Naruto for everyone to see. "I have already begun training him for the upcoming threat. He was a Kage level shinobi by the time we came back and has been training hard to regain his skills. He was just out of the shinobi academy at this time originally and was already approaching low-Chunin in strength. This time he is already at that and is rapidly approaching Jonin level." Akane sighed wistfully as she looked at the image of her boyfriend, he made her so happy to be with, and proud to be his teacher.

Her sigh didn't go unnoticed by some of those in the group, however.

_'About time she found herself a man. I was beginning to think she swung the other way.'_ Chomei smirked.

_'Finally_,' Matatabi thought rolling her eyes in amusement, _'it's a wonder she hasn't found someone before now, though, given the looks on this one, I can understand.'_ She thought as her eyes roamed over the image of Naruto, taking in his good looks and developing muscles.

_'What's so special about this one?'_ Isobu thought narrowing her eyes at the image of the blonde. _'How is he growing in strength so rapidly?'_

They were pulled out of their thoughts when Akane continued talking.

"Naruto is already strong enough to go against and hold his own against most of the Akatsuki. And that is without using techniques he knew before the time jump."

The others gaped at Akane, if what she was saying was true than their jinchuriki would need go watch themselves if they ever went against the blonde.

"Naruto is going to stick to the way things originally went for a while since we have a bit of time before things pick up," she continued. "Already we are making plans and allies for when we need to start making changes to the timeline. The most notable are Tenten, and Anko Mitarashi." She said waving her hand again and producing images of the girls.

"Tenten is a childhood friend of Naruto's, often helping hide him from the villagers when things got ruff for him, and was caught up in the chakra used to send us back and has since been helping us prepare for what is to come."

"And this Anko person?" Goku asked, scrutinizing the new images with a critical eye.

"Anko stumbled onto our training one day and has recently decided to help us." Akane informed, but her look turned serious.

"Now I want information about your Jinchuriki and what they are capable of." She said, turning to Shukaku, "let's start with you Imouto."

Shukaku nodded and waved a shaking hand and produced an image of a young girl with long red hair, jade green eyes with dark rings around them. Gaia wore a dark long sleeve shirt beneath a dark brown vest, and a white sash tied around her waist rested atop a pair tight black shorts. Her customary gourd rested firmly on her back(1).

"T-This is my h-host; S-Subaku no G-Gaia," Shukaku informed the group. "S-She's the youngest child of the Fourth K-Kazekage and is ranked as a Genin. S-She is h-heartless and kills without any mercy. H-However, s-she has made a remarkable change in the l-last month since she became a Genin. S-She no longer relies s-solely on my s-sand to defend and a-attack, and now physically t-trains more o-often and has been developing s-several high powered t-techniques. G-Gaia also has been less cold t-towards those she is around and has been m-more...considerate for her s-siblings' safety."

Akane nodded the description; it fit with Gaia's personality from what she could remember from the brief glimpses she got from Naruto's memory. Could and ruthless to her enemies, but concerned and more controlled around those she cared about. Shukaku's description also further confirmed her theory.

"And her skill level?" she asked, wondering if the girl had gotten any stronger than she was in the original timeline.

Shukaku thought for a moment longer and flinched before she began rubbing her head again. "A-About high Chunin level over a-all without my help, and like I-I said b-before she's developing several high p-powered jutsu."

Akane nodded with a thoughtful look. Gaia was getting stronger and if what Akane thought was going on with her wasn't the reason for her strange behavior, then they'd have a major problem when the girl arrived in Konoha for the Chunin exams.

She tuned to Chomei next. She needed to know how things were with the jinchuriki of the seven tails and wither or not she and Tenten needed to speed up their plans for her.

"What about Fu, Chomei? Any changes I should know about?"

The beetle's expression turned dark, the treatment her jinchuriki and friend was on par with Naruto's and Akane knew that, but what Akane didn't know was that it had recently taken a turn for the worst.

Chomei waved her hand a picture of a girl with bright green hair and orange eyes appeared, dressed in a white tank top and a tight pair of shorts. A red container of some kind was strapped to the girl's back. Akane cocked a brow in interest; if one were to put Fu in a kimono and take away the container on her back, then she and Chomei could have been mistaken as sisters if an uninformed observer were to see them side by side.

"Things with my host are not going so well…."

* * *

Naruto felt the bile rise in his throat as he slashed through another bandit. There was very little blood from the wound as the Fire Sword cauterized it before the thug cold bleed out. The wound was still deep enough to kill the man however and he feel to the ground like many of the others before him.

He hated killing, plain and simple. But with his anger meter filled to the brink and with men like the ones he was currently butchering, men who would continue to plunder, rape, and kill without remorse, he could make an exception. These men had done horrible things in their life and they needed to be put down, who cared how, just as long as they were no longer a threat to anyone else.

He turned and slashed the throat of another approaching thug who had his spear raised and ready to strike. The thug fell clutching at his neck, a small amount of blood flowing from the charred flesh. Quickly shaking off the urge to throw up, Naruto turned back and continued unleashing carnage on the stupidly charging thugs.

Gato watched, awestruck and horrified, with impossibly wide eyes, visible behind his sunglasses, as his men were killed. No, massacred was the better word as to what was happening to his army of over a hundred men. And all by the hands of a child no older than thirteen. It was unbelievable. It should not have been impossible!

As soon as the shock the blonde had caused by charging at them like he had wore off, Gato's men had reacted in kind and closed in on the blonde, not knowing that it was the worst mistake of their lives (and last).

"M-Monster," The would-be dictator of Wave whispered as he slowly began moving backward, hoping to not be noticed by the…creature that was destroying his men. If he could get back to the boat, and then his home base he could gather his valuables and get as far away as possible from Wave and….

"Going somewhere, Gato?" a voice asked behind the little man as his back hit something hard.

Just managing to get a hold on his bladder before he could make a bigger fool of himself, Gato turned to face the voices' owner. Standing before him, covered in bite marks from the Konoha Jonin's hounds and easily holding the monster of a sword he wielded over one shoulder, was Zabuza Momochi. And he did not look happy.

"Z-Zabuza," the diminutive crime-boss gulped.

"You weren't planning on leaving this little party without a proper goodbye were you?" Zabuza asked, his voice sounding demonically jovial. "After all," the nuke-nin said, lifting the midget up in his free hand, "the fun's just begun." He finished, lifting the monstrous clever from his shoulder and leveling it with Gato's throat.

Gato gulped and put a small hand on the one holding him up. "N-Now Zabuza, I'm sure we can work something out." The frightened midget offered, his body shaking uncontrollably as he hung from the man's hand. "I'll give you anything, money, land, women, even an army if you need it. Just don't kill me!"

Zabuza chuckled, a low and evil sounding thing coming from him. "Sorry, but I don't have a need for women, have one waiting for me back in Kiri. No need for land, I'm not a farmer or anything of the sort. I can have an army if I really needed it within a month or two. And your money is no longer of any value to me."

"W-What do you m-mean?" Gato asked, his body stiff with fear at the proclamation, if he couldn't buy his way of this then…

"Oh didn't you hear? Haku and I are joining Konoha." Zabuza stated jovially. "That blonde gaki currently slaughtering your 'men' gave us a particular piece of information yesterday and offered us a place in Konoha." He stated with a visible grin under the bandages on his face. "But don't worry, _I'm _not going to kill you."

"Y-You're not?" Gato asked in relief, apparently missing the extra emphasis Zabuza used.

"Nope," Zabuza said, his grin growing and his eyes darkening with an evil glint as he looked over Gato's head.

The area around them was suddenly quiet of the screams that had been sounding for the last several minutes. Slowly, and with a fear growing in his stomach, Gato turned his head to view a horrific scene.

The blonde Konoha shinobi stood alone on the bridge, surrounded by the mangled and charred remains of his men. What little blood there had been from various thugs' wounds covered the blonde from head to foot, his hair now looked to be highlighted with red streaks from all the crimson liquid that had landed on it. The flaming blade he wielded hung loosely at his side and his murderous eyes resting on the one within Zabuza's grasp.

"He is," Zabuza said simply before Gato felt himself rising higher and then being thrown through the air.

Naruto grinned as he saw the pint sized businessman flying through the air and raised the Fire Sword in preparation to slice the man to bits.

But just as he had crosses the halfway mark between him and Zabuza, an arrow suddenly whizzed through the air and planted itself in the center of the little man's head and diverted his bodies path so that it flew over the edge of the bridge. Shocked at the arrow's appearance, Naruto lost concentration on his jutsu and exploded in his hands once more.

Gritting his teeth in pain Naruto turned to see a sight he remembered well from the previous timeline. The villagers of wave were standing there, everyone one of them armed to the teeth with pitchforks or other things. Inari stood at the front of the group, the bow used to shoot Gato still held in the air.

The boy himself looked at the bow in his hand for a second before looking at the spot Gato previously was, "um…oops?" he said, grinning sheepishly.

Naruto chuckled tiredly at the kid, just like the last time Inari had spurred the villagers into rallying against Gato.

"Oh this is just too good." He heard Zabuza laugh from the other end of the bridge, "the little pipsqueak got taken out by another pipsqueak!"

This had Inari blushing in embarrassment and the villagers laughing uproariously.

Naruto was about to make a comment when his body suddenly began to burn with an intense pain and his vision began to blur. The last thing he saw before passing out was everyone's concerned faces, and heard a yell of concern from Anko as Kakashi rushed to his side.

* * *

Akane found herself angry at the villagers of Takigakure. She had known the way Taki's people treated Fu wasn't much better than the treatment Naruto had received at the hands of his own villagers, but with the recent revelation she had just heard from her green haired sister she wanted to go and just rip the Waterfall village to shreds.

"A-Are you sure of this?" she asked, taking a deep breath in order to clam herself from her destructive thoughts.

"Very," Chomei confirmed, "Fu's resolve is strong, but with this resent attack against her, I fear she may very well give up."

Akane sighed as she thought of what Chomei had just revealed to her and the others and if there was any way too possibly help the poor girl. From what she remembered, Fu was one of the first to be captured by the Akatsuki.

"Chomei," she spoke looking into her sister's eyes, with an intensity she had never used before, "make sure Fu does not give into her doubts, and if at any time either of you hear a word of people wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them make sure she gets out of the area as quick as she can; there's-"

"Oh, spare me from all this." Isobu's irritated voice spoke, interrupting Akane. The others looked over in surprise at the Three-Tails.

"You have a problem with something, Isobu?" Akane asked, narrowing her eyes yet again at her least favorite sister.

"Pa-lease," Isobu said drawing out the word to show she was clearly skeptical of the situation. "As if there was any force on the planet that could manage to capture us, let only control the Jubi." She spoke, arrogantly crossing her arms.

Akane stared at the turtle, dumbfounded, _'is she really that arrogant, to think nothing is able to hurt us?' _she asked herself, before she felt a jerk on her mind. Her eyes widened in worry and she bit her lip, _'Naruto-kun!' _she thought, clearly something had happened and Naruto was not in a good state.

"Listen you arrogant, turtle. I don't have time to deal with your shit today. I have to get back to my host. So if you don't want to head my warning then don't. I won't be there to help you if you get caught, it happened last time and it _will_ happen again." She said, turning her attention from the tug she was feeling on her mind and turning to address the others.

"I will call you all again when I can to finish this meeting." She said before allowing her consciousness to fade from the joint mindscape and back into Naruto's mind.

That left the others there, staring at where their sister used to be, each of them with a thoughtful frown, a blank look (in Kokuo's case) , or a smirk (Isobu).

"Good riddance." Isobu said out loud before a large amount of killing intent fell on to her.

Cocking on her breath, she turned and saw all her sister, minus Kokuo, had transformed back into their Biju forms and all were glaring at her with malice. Shukaku especially had an odd gleam in her eyes.

"M-Mercy?" she asked, more like pleaded as she slowly backed away.

"**Nope."**they all replied as one before they all began to chase her through the mindscape.

For the next several moments all that could be head were the shouts of pain from the Three-Tails. And when all the others had gone back to their hosts, they left a groaning and twitching mass of bruised flesh.

'_**Konoha'**_

Tenten sighed sadly as she lied on her bed, staring at the ceiling while absentmindedly twirling a kunai in her hand.

Without Naruto or Akane around in the village to either train or hang around with, she had nothing to do other than train with her team or work in her families shop. It wasn't that she didn't love her team like a family, but after having to put up with two's overly happy and joyful attitude and the other's serious and cold one for the better part of a decade, she needed some space, and besides it was her teams day off. That and she didn't feel like working in her families shop today either. So with nothing to do Tenten found herself in her current state of staring at her ceiling and twirling a kunai by the ring on its handle to pass the time. She was, quite simply put, board.

Oh, how she wished that Naruto would hurry up with his mission and come back home, at least then her life wouldn't be so boring at the moment. She had a feeling that when her boyfriend and fellow Naruto lover returned to the village that they were going to have a few surprises for both her and the village itself. She giggled lightly, even without being there, Naruto always seemed to brighten her day and it made her smile.

_Crack!_

Tenten's head snapped to her bedside table when the sound echoed through her room. On the table was a small lamp for when she was reading at night, and a picture. The picture was of her, Akane and Naruto just after they had come back. In it Tenten and Akane where sitting on a park bench on either side of Naruto, while the blonde had his arms wrapped around their waists holding them close as they rested their heads on either of his shoulders, a soft smile on his face and a protective look in his eyes while the girls had happy and content smiles adorning their faces.

The picture captured a moment truly signifying that all three where happy and would face anything that got in their way together.

However Tenten's attention was not on the pictures contents, but rather on the crack that now ran down the center of it, right through the part that held Naruto.

Her eyes widened in fear at the bad omen, and her head turned to north gate visible through her window as her hand went to clutch the area above her heart.

'_Naruto, please...be safe.'_

* * *

**1.) If you want a better description I have a link set up on my profile so you can see what Gaia looks like.**

* * *

**CUT!**

**Okay everyone here's the chapter for ya. Sorry if it took a while to get out but a lot is going on in my life right now and as much as I wish I was able to write I can't. okay so next time is the return to Konoha where our favorite blonde and red head reunite with Tenten. **

**On a side note, I finally got into G.E.D. classes! Hopefully I'll be able to complete them by the end of June without needing to go back in for more lessons.**

**So what's up with Naruto? Why did he pass out and why was he in pain? Trust me nothing bad is going to happen to him, but to find out just what is going on you'll have to find out next time.**

**Please review.**

**Shadow12 out!**


End file.
